Long-Term Outcomes of Gastric Cancer Patients with Preoperative Sarcopenia

There are few reports of long-term outcomes of gastric cancer patients with sarcopenia. The purpose of this study was to assess the impact of sarcopenia on long-term outcomes in gastric cancer patients who underwent curative resection.

A total of 951 patients aged 65 years or older who underwent R0 resection for gastric cancer were investigated. Sarcopenia was defined as a decreased arm muscle area < 38.05 cm² in men and < 27.87 cm² in women combined with a decline in grip strength to < 26 kgf in men and < 18 kgf in women.

Of 951 patients, 111 (11.7%) were diagnosed with sarcopenia. Reduced surgery was performed significantly more frequently in patients with sarcopenia (p = 0.006). The incidence of eligible patients who received adjuvant chemotherapy was significantly lower in patients with sarcopenia than in those without sarcopenia (p = 0.030). Mortality due to gastric cancer and aging-associated multiple organ failure rates without obvious diseases were higher in patients with sarcopenia (p = 0.036 and p < 0.001, respectively). Overall survival (OS) and cause-specific survival (CSS) were significantly worse in patients with sarcopenia (p < 0.001 and p = 0.005, respectively). Multivariate analysis for OS and CSS revealed that sarcopenia was an independent prognostic factor in gastric cancer patients (p < 0.001 and p = 0.043, respectively).

Sarcopenia is related to poor survival in gastric cancer patients and appears to be a significant negative prognostic factor in patients with gastric cancer who underwent curative resection.