The Naples Prognostic Score Is a Useful Tool to Assess Surgical Treatment in Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer

Abstract

Different prognostic scores have been applied to identify patients with non-small cell lung cancer who have a higher probability of poor outcomes. In this study, we evaluated whether the Naples Prognostic Score, a novel index that considers both inflammatory and nutritional values, was associated with long-term survival. This study presents a retrospective propensity score matching analysis of patients who underwent curative surgery for non-small cell lung cancer from January 2016 to December 2021. The score considered the following four pre-operative parameters: the neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio, lymphocyte-to-monocyte ratio, serum albumin, and total cholesterol. The Kaplan–Meier method and Cox regression analysis were performed to evaluate the relationship between the score and disease-free survival, overall survival, and cancer-related survival. A total of 260 patients were selected for the study, though this was reduced to 154 after propensity score matching. Post-propensity Kaplan–Meier analysis showed a significant correlation between the Naples Prognostic Score, overall survival (p = 0.018), and cancer-related survival (p = 0.007). Multivariate Cox regression analysis further validated the score as an independent prognostic indicator for both types of survival (p = 0.007 and p = 0.010, respectively). The Naples Prognostic Score proved to be an easily achievable prognostic factor of long-term survival in patients with non-small cell lung cancer after surgical treatment.