Differential prognostic significance of sarcopenia in metastatic esophageal squamous and adenocarcinoma.

Zeuge, Ulf; Fares, Aline F; Soriano, Joelle; Hueniken, Katrina; Bajwa, Jaspreet; Wang, Wanning; Schmid, Sabine; Rudolph-Naiberg, Sarah; Brown, M Catherine; Yeung, Jonathan; Chen, Eric X; Jang, Raymond W; Xu, Wei; Elimova, Elena; Liu, Geoffrey; Rozenberg, Dmitry; McInnis, Micheal C (2023). Differential prognostic significance of sarcopenia in metastatic esophageal squamous and adenocarcinoma. Esophagus, 20(3), pp. 557-566. Springer 10.1007/s10388-022-00981-y

Text s10388-022-00981-y.pdf - Published Version Restricted to registered users only Available under License Publisher holds Copyright. Download (958kB)

BACKGROUND

Sarcopenia indicates poor prognosis in various malignancies. We evaluated the association of sarcopenia with overall (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) in metastatic esophageal cancer (MEC) patients, a population often presenting with poor nutritional status.

METHODS

In newly diagnosed MEC patients managed at the Princess Margaret (PM) Cancer Centre (diagnosed 2006-2015), total muscle area, visceral adiposity (VA), and subcutaneous adiposity (SA) were quantified on abdominal computed tomography at L3. Sarcopenia was determined using published cutoffs, based on sex and height.

RESULTS

Of 202 MEC patients, most were male (166/82%), < 65 years (116/57%), and had adenocarcinoma histology (141/70%); 110/54% had recurrent MEC after initial curative-intent treatment; 92/46% presented with de novo MEC. At stage IV diagnosis, 20/10% were underweight, 97/48% were normal-weight and 84/42% were overweight/obese; 103/51% were sarcopenic. Sarcopenia was associated with worse median OS (4.6 vs. 7.9 months; log-rank p = 0.03) and 1-year survival, even after adjusting for other body composition variables (e.g., BMI, VA, and SA): adjusted-HR 1.51 [95% CI 1.1-2.2, p = 0.02]. In post hoc analysis, sarcopenia was highly prognostic in adenocarcinomas (p = 0.003), but not squamous cell carcinomas (SCC). In patients receiving palliative systemic treatment (104/51%), sarcopenia was associated with shorter PFS (p = 0.004) in adenocarcinoma patients (75/72%).

CONCLUSIONS

In metastatic esophageal adenocarcinomas, sarcopenia is associated with worse PFS and OS. In metastatic esophageal SCC, there was a non-significant trend for worse PFS but no association with OS. In order to offset the poor prognosis associated with sarcopenia particularly in metastatic esophageal adenocarcinoma patients, future research should focus on possible countermeasures.

Interest & Impact

Downloads

1 since deposited on 24 Nov 2023
1 in the past 12 months

Citations

5 Citations in Web of Science ®
6 Citations in Scopus

Search

in Google Scholar™

Services

Actions (login required)

Edit item

Actions (login required)

Edit item