Pre-operative muscle density and not muscle mass is associated with overall mortality in early-stage colorectal cancer patients

Abstract

Rationale: In cancer patients with a relatively poor prognosis, both low skeletal muscle mass and low skeletal muscle density are thought to be associated with higher mortality. Whether these associations also hold for earlier stage cancer is less clear. We aimed to study the association between muscle mass, density and overall mortality among early-stage (stage I-III) colorectal cancer (CRC) patients with a relatively good prognosis.