Prognostic Impact of Adiposity in Hematological Malignancies: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

It has been proposed that direct measurement of adiposity has a greater accuracy as a prognostic factor in various malignancies than anthropometric measures such as BMI. We evaluated the association of visceral and subcutaneous adiposity with outcomes in patients with hematological malignancies with a systematic review and meta-analysis. This systematic review included patients with hematological malignancies who had the analysis of overall mortality and progression-free survival according to their adiposity status. We identified 3137 articles, of which we included seven studies. Patients with visceral low visceral adiposity had 2 times greater mortality risk (HR 2.02, P = .0004) and 80% higher risk of death or disease progression (HR 2.98, P = 0.0002), than patients with normal visceral obesity. Patients classified with subcutaneous adipopenia had almost 3 times greater mortality risk. In conclusion, hematological malignancy patients having low adiposity (subcutaneous or visceral) have worse outcomes.