Prognostic value of nutritional and functional screening instruments for mortality in patients with hematologic malignancies

PURPOSE: Functional and nutritional impairments adversely affect outcomes in hematologic malignancies; however, the comparative prognostic value of widely available screening instruments remains insufficiently explored. The present study aimed to examine the association between nutritional and functional screening instruments and 12-month mortality in hospitalized patients with hematologic malignancies. METHODS: In this prospective cohort of 91 patients (median age 53 years [IQR, 35-61]), nutritional screening and assessment tools (PG-SGA, GLIM criteria) and functional screening instruments (SARC-F, SARC-CalF, and Geriatric 8 [G8]) were applied within 72 h of admission. The G8 was pragmatically used as a multidimensional vulnerability screening instrument. Discriminative ability for mortality was evaluated using ROC curve analysis, and Cox regression models (unadjusted and adjusted) were used to examine associations with mortality. RESULTS: During follow-up, 29.7% of patients died. The G8 and SARC-CalF were associated with mortality in adjusted models (HR 4.83, 95% CI 1.13-20.68; HR 2.37, 95% CI 1.08-5.17, respectively). PG-SGA Global showed acceptable discriminative performance in ROC analyses (AUC 0.71) but was not associated with mortality after adjustment. GLIM criteria were not associated with mortality in adjusted models. CONCLUSION: The G8 and SARC-CalF scores have demonstrated prognostic utility as simple and low-cost screening tools associated with mortality in these patients with hematological malignancies hospitalized in a resource-limited service.