Abstract
Background Preoperative nutritional and inflammation indexes have been shown to be associated with postoperative complications and the prognosis of patients with a malignant tumor. We evaluated several clinicopathological prognostic factors in patients with resected esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). Methods Seventy-eight patients who underwent curative resection for ESCC were included in this retrospective study. The associations of body mass index (BMI), the prognostic nutritional index (PNI), neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), platelet-lymphocyte ratio (PLR), and protein-albumin ratio (CAR) with various clinicopathological factors were evaluated. Results In multivariate analyses, only low PNI (<46.8) independently and significantly predicted overall survival (OS) (P=0.002). Conclusions The PNI is a simple, useful marker for predicting the long-term prognosis of patients with ESCC after esophagectomy. The PNI should be included in the routine assessment of patients with ESCC.