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Updated: Dec 24, 2025
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Published on: September 27, 2024
Prognostic value of sarcopenia in patients with colorectal liver metastases undergoing hepatic resection
Yueh-Wei Liu1, Chien-Chang Lu2, Ching-Di Chang3
1Liver Transplant Center, Department of Surgery, Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, and Chang Gung University College of Medicine, Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
Abstract:
The prognostic significance of sarcopenia has been widely studied in different cancer patients. This study aimed to analyze the influence of sarcopenia on long-term survival in patients with colorectal liver metastasis (CRLM) undergoing hepatic resection. A retrospective analysis of 182 patients undergoing hepatic resection for CRLM was performed. Sarcopenia was determinedusing the Hounsfield unit average calculation (HUAC), a measure of muscle quality-muscledensity at preoperative abdominal computed tomography scans. Sarcopenia was defined as an HUAC score of less than 22 HU calculated using receiver operating characteristic analysis. The prognostic relevance of clinical variables and overall survival (OS) and recurrence-free survival (RFS) was evaluated. Patients with sarcopenia were older (p < 0.001) and had higher prevalence of diabetics (p = 0.004), higher body mass index (BMI) (p < 0.001) and neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (p = 0.026) compared to those without. Sarcopenia was not significantly associated with OS and RFS. Multivariate Cox's regression analysis showed that multinodularity (>3) (hazard ratio (HR) 2.736; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.631-4.589; p < 0.001), high CEA level (≥20 ng/ml) (HR 1.793; 95% CI, 1.092-2.945; p = 0.021) and blood loss (≥300 cc) (HR1.793; 95% CI, 1.084-2.964; p = 0.023) were independent factors associated with OS. In subgroup analyses, sarcopenia was a significant factor of poor OS in the patients with multinodularity by univariate (p = 0.002) and multivariate analyses(HR 3.571; 95% CI, 1.508-8.403; p = 0.004). Multinodularity (>3) (HR 1.750; 95% CI, 1.066-2.872; p = 0.027), high aspartate aminotransferase level (HR 1.024; 95% CI, 1.003-1.046; p = 0.025) and male gender (HR 1.688; 95% CI, 1.036-2.748; p = 0.035) were independent factors of RFS. In conclusion, despite no significance in whole cohort, sarcopenia was predictive of worse OS in patients with multiple CRLM after partial hepatectomy.
