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. 2020 Oct;9(5):1370-1379.
doi: 10.21037/gs-20-294.

Prognostic significance of the Controlling Nutritional Status (CONUT) score in surgically treated breast cancer patients

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Prognostic significance of the Controlling Nutritional Status (CONUT) score in surgically treated breast cancer patients

Zhang-Zan Huang et al. Gland Surg. 2020 Oct.

Abstract

Background: Breast cancer is one of the most common malignancy in women with high mortality rate. Given the growing evidence shows that immune-inflammatory system influences the survival of patients with cancer, we assessed the prognostic significance of the preoperative Controlling Nutritional Status (CONUT) score in patients with breast cancer who underwent surgery.

Methods: We conducted a retrospective analysis of 1,367 breast cancer patients who underwent surgery between December 2010 and October 2012. All individual preoperative serum albumin concentration, total cholesterol concentration, and total peripheral lymphocyte count were counted to calculate CONUT. Higher CONUT score is in line with worse nutritional status. The optimal cut-off of CONUT score was set at 3 to categorize the investigated patients into two groups, namely a high- or low-CONUT score group. We adopted univariate and multivariate analyses (Cox proportional hazards regression model) statistical method.

Results: Patients in the high-CONUT score group had shorter overall survival (OS) and recurrence-free survival (RFS) in comparison with those in the low-CONUT score group, 66.43 vs. 69.30 months and 54.70 vs. 59.98 months respectively (all P value <0.05). Univariate and multivariate analyses revealed that the CONUT score was an independent predictor of OS (P=0.029 and 0.046, respectively) and RFS (P=0.001, P=0.013, respectively).

Conclusions: The CONUT score was identified as an independent prognostic indicator in surgically treated breast cancer patients, indicating that, compared with the low CONUT score, a high CONUT score may lead to poorer prognosis.

Keywords: CONUT; breast cancer; surgery; survival.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of Interest: All authors have completed the ICMJE uniform disclosure form (available at http://dx.doi.org/10.21037/gs-20-294). The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Flow diagram of study selection.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Kaplan-Meier for the stratified CONUT score groups in association to: (A) overall survival; (B) recurrence-free survival; and (C) distant metastatic-free survival.

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