PG-SGA, GLIM, and CONUT in Hepatopancreatobiliary Cancer: Complementary Tools for Different Clinical Questions

Background/Objectives: Malnutrition is among the most consequential yet inconsistently addressed comorbidities in hepatopancreatobiliary (HPB) cancer, arising at the intersection of cachexia, sarcopenia, systemic inflammation, hepatic dysfunction, and biliary obstruction. The Patient-Generated Subjective Global Assessment (PG-SGA), the Global Leadership Initiative on Malnutrition (GLIM) framework, and the Controlling Nutritional Status (CONUT) score are often used interchangeably, but they serve different purposes: nutritional assessment, malnutrition diagnosis, and prognostic risk stratification, respectively. This narrative review compares what the three tools measure, summarizes the HPB-specific evidence for each, and proposes a framework for matching the tool to the clinical question.