Objective: This study aimed to investigate the association between clinical, biochemical, and hematological indicators and survival outcomes in patients diagnosed with pleural effusion.
Materials and
Methods: A retrospective, single-center observational study was conducted, including 365 patients with pleural effusion between January 2020 and December 2024. Clinical data including age, gender, etiology, Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) performance status, Karnofsky score, and laboratory parameters such as albumin, C-reactive protein (CRP), the neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), and platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR) were extracted from medical records. Survival trends were visualized descriptively using Empirical Cumulative Distribution Function plots.

Results: Among 365 patients, the most frequent etiologies were congestive heart failure and breast cancer. Patients with higher serum albumin (>3.0 g/dL), higher ECOG scores, and lower Karnofsky scores demonstrated shorter survival durations. Elevated CRP, NLR, and PLR levels were also associated with shorter survival. In descriptive analyses, higher NLR and PLR categories were associated with longer survival. No formal time-to-event tests were performed. No formal time-to-event statistical tests were performed.

Conclusion: Several routinely available clinical and laboratory parameters, particularly serum albumin, performance status scores, and inflammatory markers, may be useful for estimating prognosis in pleural effusion. These findings underscore the importance of integrating simple clinical data in the prognostic assessment of patients and warrant further validation in prospective studies using formal survival analysis.