Prognostic Nutritional Index and Breast Cancer Outcomes: A Meta-Analysis of 9 Studies

Nine studies comprising 3,718 patients were included in this meta-analysis evaluating the prognostic nutritional index (PNI) in breast cancer patients receiving neoadjuvant chemotherapy. The analysis, authored by Meihui Shan and published on figshare in April 2026, systematically reviewed evidence from PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, and the Cochrane Library up to November 2025. It synthesized hazard ratios and odds ratios to assess associations between pre-treatment PNI and overall survival, disease-free survival, and pathological complete response.

Use Cases

• Validate the prognostic value of the prognostic nutritional index (PNI) for overall survival in breast cancer based on synthesized hazard ratios.
• Assess the association between pre-treatment PNI and pathological complete response (pCR) rates using pooled odds ratios.
• Explore potential effect modifiers like sample size, age, and geographic region through the reported subgroup analyses.
• Inform clinical risk stratification models by evaluating the PNI as a simple, practical biomarker as suggested by the conclusions.

Strengths

• Analysis is based on a systematic review of 9 studies encompassing 3,718 patient records.
• Effect estimates are quantified with specific hazard ratios and odds ratios, including 95% confidence intervals and p-values.
• Robustness was tested via subgroup analyses, sensitivity analyses, and evaluation of publication bias as described in the methods.
• Dataset has a clear provenance with a PROSPERO systematic review registration identifier (CRD420251268856).

Limitations

• The dataset is very small at 18.6 KB, suggesting it contains summary results rather than individual patient-level data.
• Row count and column-level documentation are unknown, limiting assessment of data structure and granularity.
• Substantial heterogeneity and limited robustness were noted for the disease-free survival (DFS) association, as mentioned in the results.

Provenance

Source

figshare, author Meihui Shan

Collection Method

Systematic review and meta-analysis of studies from PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, and the Cochrane Library.

Time Range

Literature search conducted through November 2025.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-27 04:14:45; freshness should be verified

Geography

Studies included are likely international, but specific geographic coverage is not detailed; subgroup analyses indicated geographic region as a potential modifier.