Abstract
Previous studies have reported prognostic factors for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients receiving lenvatinib; however, no studies have evaluated the effects of both handgrip strength and skeletal muscle mass on the clinical outcomes. Therefore, this retrospective study investigated the individual effect of handgrip strength, skeletal muscle mass, and sarcopenia on clinical outcomes of 53 HCC patients treated with lenvatinib. Before receiving lenvatinib, handgrip strength and skeletal muscle index (SMI) were measured. Low handgrip strength and muscle depletion were defined as <26 and <18 kg and SMI <42 and SMI <38 cm2/m2 in men and women, respectively. Sarcopenia was defined as having low handgrip strength and muscle depletion. Multivariate analysis identified modified albumin–bilirubin grade 1–2a (p = 0.010), Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer stage A–B (p = 0.011), and absence of low handgrip strength (p = 0.015) as favorable prognostic factors for survival. Furthermore, sarcopenia was an independent significant prognostic factor for survival. Time to treatment failure was associated with handgrip strength and sarcopenia. Our findings suggest that handgrip strength may be a useful marker of clinical outcomes in HCC patients treated with lenvatinib.
Highlights
Sarcopenia was initially defined by Rosenberg as age-related loss of muscle mass and function [1,2]; sarcopenia caused by various factors, such as chronic liver diseases including liver cirrhosis (LC) and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), has recently become an important concern [3]
To our knowledge, only one study reported the association between skeletal muscle mass and clinical outcome in HCC patients treated with lenvatinib [32]
We investigated the individual effect of handgrip strength, skeletal muscle mass, and sarcopenia on clinical outcomes in HCC patients treated with lenvatinib
Summary
Sarcopenia was initially defined by Rosenberg as age-related loss of muscle mass and function [1,2]; sarcopenia caused by various factors, such as chronic liver diseases including liver cirrhosis (LC) and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), has recently become an important concern [3]. For HCC patients receiving sorafenib, the absence of skeletal muscle depletion is a favorable predictor of survival [9,10,11,12]. The measurement of skeletal muscle mass using CT alone without the assessment of handgrip strength has been used as the definition of sarcopenia in most previous reports [6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13]. Previous studies have reported prognostic factors for HCC patients receiving lenvatinib [21,22,23,24,25,26], no studies have evaluated the effects of both handgrip strength and skeletal muscle mass on the clinical outcomes. This retrospective study aimed to investigate the individual effect of handgrip strength, skeletal muscle mass, and sarcopenia on clinical outcomes of HCC patients treated with lenvatinib
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
