# The prognostic role of systemic inflammatory markers on HIV-infected patients with non-Hodgkin lymphoma, a multicenter cohort study

## TL;DR

This study examines how inflammation markers predict survival in HIV patients with non-Hodgkin lymphoma, finding several markers are linked to mortality risk.

## Contribution

The study introduces a mortality risk score based on inflammatory biomarkers for HIV-associated non-Hodgkin lymphoma patients.

## Key findings

- GPS, mGPS, PI, and PNI were independently associated with increased risk of death in HIV patients with NHL.
- A mortality risk score combining PNI and AIDS events showed moderate predictive ability with AUCs of 0.69 at 3 and 5 years.
- The study confirms the prognostic value of systemic inflammatory markers in this patient population.

## Abstract

The systemic inflammatory response has been postulated as having prognostic significance in a wide range of different cancer types. We aimed to assess the prognostic role of inflammatory markers on survival in HIV-infected patients with Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma (NHL), and to compute a prognostic score based on inflammatory biomarkers.

We evaluated data on HIV patients with NLH diagnosis between 1998 and 2012 in a HIV Italian Cohort. Using Cox proportional regression model, we assessed the prognostic role of Neutrophil-Lymphocyte Ratio (NLR), Platelet-Lymphocyte Ratio (PLR), Glasgow Prognostic Score (GPS), modified Glasgow Prognostic Score (mGPS), Prognostic Index (PI), and Prognostic Nutritional Index (PNI). We also computed a risk score equation, assigning patients to a derivation and a validation sample. The area under the curve (AUC) was use to evaluate the predictive ability of this score.

215 non-Hodgkin lymphoma cases (80.0% males) with a mean age of 43.2 years were included. Deaths were observed in 98 (45.6%) patients during a median follow up of 5 years. GPS, mGPS, PI and PNI were independently associated with risk of death. We also computed a mortality risk score which included PNI and occurrence of an AIDS event within six months from NHL diagnosis. The AUCs were 0.69 (95% CI 0.58 to 0.81) and 0.69 (95% CI 0.57 to 0.81) at 3 and 5 years of the follow-up, respectively.

GPS, mGPS, PI and PNI are independent prognostic factors for survival of HIV patients with NHL.