The impact of skeletal muscle loss for hepatocellular carcinoma treated with lenvatinib.

Abstract

493 Background: Many previous reports have shown that skeletal muscle loss (SML) is one of the prognostic factors for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients treated with sorafenib. However, there are few reports about the impact of SML for the HCC patients treated with lenvatinib. Therefore, we evaluated the relation between SML and overall survival (OS) of HCC patients treated with lenvatinib (LEN). Methods: We retrospectively analyzed 50 HCC patients treated with LEN from April 2018 to February 2019. We included 36 patients who continued LEN more than 8 weeks and evaluated CT scans before treatment and after 8 weeks. Skeletal muscle area was measured on axial image at the level of the third lumber vertebra (L3) using sliceOmatic. Skeletal Mass Index (SMI) was calculated by dividing the muscle area (㎠) with square of height (㎡). The definition of myopenia is based on the guideline described by the Japan Society of Hepatology (42㎠/㎡ in men and 38 ㎠/㎡ in women). ΔSMI is a chronological change of SMI for 8 weeks. We calculated decreasing rate of ΔSMI. We evaluated the relation between chronological change of SMI and OS. Results: The patients with myopenia at baseline were 12 (33.3 %). The decreasing rate of ΔSMI at 8 weeks was -2.57 % [-5.9, 0.2]. SMI had decreased in 27 patients (75 %) for 8 weeks. There was no significant difference between OS and baseline myopenia (p = 0.2), ALBI grade (p = 0.2), BCLC stage (p = 0.5), up to 7 in or out (p = 0.35), previous TKI treatment (p = 0.15), metastasis (p = 0.91), or vascular invasion (p = 0.12). However, the patients who had decreased SMI had significantly poor prognosis (p = 0.028). In backgrounds, there was no significant difference between patients with or without decreasing of ΔSMI, such as baseline myopenia (p = 0.7), ALBI grade (p = 0.4), BCLC stage (p = 1.0), Child Pugh score (p = 0.8), age (p = 0.6), sex (p = 0.3), up to7 in or out (p = 1.0), previous TKI treatment (p = 0.3), and relative dose intensity at 4 weeks (p = 0.9). Conclusions: There was no significant correlation between baseline myopenia and OS. However, chronological decreasing of SMI for 8 weeks was a prognostic factor of HCC patients treated with LEN. Therefore, monitoring and preventing of decreasing of skeletal muscle mass may be important.