Li N, Song WJ, Gao J, et al. - In patients who underwent robot-assisted laparoscopic radical prostatectomy (RALP), the prognostic nutritional index (PNI) was identified as an independent prognostic factor for predicting biochemical recurrence (BCR). Additional prognostic information could be obtained by including PNI into risk assessments.

• A retrospective analysis of clinical data of 136 patients treated with RALP, to assess the PNI in predicting the BCR of this patient population.

• By assessing area under the receiver operating characteristic curve, 46.03 was defined as the optimal cutoff value of the PNI. (95% confidence interval: 0.604–0.805, Youden index = 0.401, sensitivity = 82.5%, specificity = 57.6%).

• In multivariate Cox analysis, following were revealed as independent prognostic factors for predicting BCR: clinical staging, prostate-specific antigen, and PNI.