Clinical impact of newly developed sarcopenia after surgical resection for gastric cancer.

Abstract

145 Background: The purpose of this study was to investigate the risk factors and the clinical impact of of newly developed sarcopenia after surgical resection on the prognosis in patients undergoing radical gastrectomy for gastric cancer. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed clinicopathological data from 430 consecutive GC patients who underwent surgical resection at Chung-Ang University Hospital between January 2011 and December 2015. Their skeletal muscle mass and abdominal fat volume were measured by abdominal CT imaging. Results: A total of 425 patients were analyzed in the study. The mean age was 62 years old and male were 301 (70.8%). Of these, 42 patients (9.9%) were diagnosed as pre-operative sarcopenia. Compared with non-sarcopenic group, pre-operative sarcopenia groups showed more female, higher BMI, less alcoholic, and less smoking. However, there was no significant difference in 5-year overall survival and disease free survival between the groups (p=0.836 and p=0.638, respectively). Among 381 non-sarcopenic patients, 48 patients (12.6%) were diagnosed as newly developed sarcopenia in one year after gastric resection. Compared with non-sarcopenic group, the newly developed sarcopenic group showed more male, more undifferentiated tumor, lower hemoglobin level, less alcoholic, less smoking, and presence of diabetes mellitus. Furthermore, newly developed sarcopenic group showed more total fat area, especially more subcutaneous fat area and lower VFA / SFA ratio in the abdominal CT imaging. However, there was no significant difference in the 5-year overall survival and disease free survival among non-sarcopenic, sarcopenic, and newly developed sarcopenic groups (p=0.521 and p=0.534, respectively). The relationship between preoperative body fat volume and postoperative muscle mass showed a significant correlation (rho = 0.296, p <0.001), but only BMI was significantly associated with long term survival. Conclusions: Although newly developed sarcopenia after surgery did not affect the survival rate, patients with nutritional risk of sarcopenia after surgical resection may require early evaluation of nutritional status and nutritional support.