Association of GLIM Defined Malnutrition According to Preoperative Chronic Inflammation with Long-Term Prognosis after Gastrectomy in Patients with Advanced Gastric Cancer

This study aimed to investigate the association of malnutrition, defined by the Global Leadership Initiative on Malnutrition (GLIM) according to preoperative chronic inflammation with long-term prognosis after gastrectomy in patients with advanced gastric cancer. We included patients with primary stage I-III gastric cancer who underwent gastrectomy between April 2008 and June 2018. Patients were categorized as normal, moderate malnutrition, and severe malnutrition. Preoperative chronic inflammation was defined as a C-reactive protein level of >0.5 mg/dL. The primary endpoint was overall survival (OS), compared between the inflammation and non-inflammation groups. Among the 457 patients, 74 (16.2%) and 383 (83.8%) were included in the inflammation and non-inflammation groups, respectively. The prevalence of malnutrition was similar in both groups (p = 0.208). Multivariate analyses for OS showed that moderate malnutrition (hazard ratios: 1.749, 95% concordance interval: 1.037-2.949, p = 0.036) and severe malnutrition (hazard ratios: 1.971, 95% CI: 1.130-3.439, p = 0.017) were poor prognostic factors in the non-inflammation group, but malnutrition was not a prognostic factor in the inflammation group. In conclusion, preoperative malnutrition was a poor prognostic factor in patients without inflammation, but it was not a prognostic factor in patients with inflammation.