TY - JOUR
AR - RCO-2018-1-105
TI - Assessment of muscle mass with computerised tomography in patients with incurable gastrointestinal cancer. A prospective single centre study
AU - Benedicte , Vibjerg Wilson
AU - Jens, Kjeldsen
AU - Per , Pfeiffer
AU - Sine R , Obling
JO - Radiotherapy and Clinical Oncology
PY - 2018
DA - Fri 08, Mar 2019
SN - 2674-2497
DO - http://dx.doi.org/10.31487/j.RCO.2018.01.005
UR - https://www.sciencerepository.org/assessment-of-muscle-mass-with-computerised-tomography-in-patients-with-incurable-gastrointestinal-cancer-a-prospective-single-centre-study_RCO-1-105 
KW - Skeletal Muscle Mass (SMM) incurable cancer, sarcopenia body composition modified Glasgow Prognostic Score (mGPS) BMI
AB - Objective
Body composition is often affected in patients with incurable cancer, but the prevalence of sarcopenia is
unknown. Our aim was to evaluate sarcopenia as predictor of overall survival in a cohort of patients with
incurable gastrointestinal cancer and furthermore to evaluate if this cohort had different characteristics than
patients, from an identical cohort who accepted participation in a RCT.
Design and methods
In this single centre study, we prospectively included a cohort of patients with incurable gastrointestinal cancer
nutritionally at risk (NRS 2002≥2). Patients were screened but refused participation in an RCT testing
supplemental HPN. To assess sarcopenia, data on skeletal muscle mass (SMM) from the cross-sectional area of
L3 were assessed using computerized tomography scan (CT scan). SMM evaluation was included if a CT scan
was available within 60 days from the inclusion date. Differences in survival were tested according to sarcopenia
and modified Glasgow Prognostic Score (mGPS). Survival was compared between the patients who refused to
participate in the RCT and patients who actually did participate.
Results
Eligible for inclusion were 187 patients, and 165 had a CT scan available for analysis. Most prevalent
diagnosis was pancreatic cancer (52%), median age was 70.5 (41.2-89.4), median BMI 22.3 (14.4-36.8)
and 99% were receiving chemotherapy. Sarcopenia was present in 78% of the overall cohort, more
women (88%) than men (70%) were sarcopenic at inclusion. There was a positive correlation between
BMI and SMM, but SMM accounted for only 8% of the variance in BMI.
Conclusions
Prevalence of sarcopenia was high in this cohort of patient with incurable gastrointestinal cancer; SMM
did positively correlate to BMI, but only accounted for minor variations. mGPS was in the multivariate
cox regression model predictive of survival and sarcopenia did not add to this elevated risk.