Body Composition and Clinical Outcomes in Esophageal Cancer Patients Treated with Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors

Obesity is associated with increased mortality in various cancers, but the relationship between obesity and clinical outcomes in unresectable or recurrent esophageal cancer who receive immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) remains unknown. This study investigated the association between body composition and clinical outcomes in patients with unresectable or recurrent esophageal cancer who received ICIs.

Utilizing an unbiased database of 111 unresectable or recurrent esophageal cancers, we evaluated the relationships between body composition (body mass index, waist circumference, psoas major muscle volume, and subcutaneous and visceral fat areas) at the initiation of ICI treatment and clinical outcomes including the disease control rate and progression-free survival (PFS).

Waist circumference was significantly associated with the disease control rate at the first assessment (P = 0.0008). A high waist circumference was significantly associated with favorable PFS in patients treated with nivolumab. In an univariable model, for 5-cm increase of waist circumference in the outcome category of PFS, univariable hazard ratio (HR) was 0.73 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.61-0.87; P = 0.0002). A multivariable model controlling for potential confounders yielded a similar finding (multivariable HR, 0.56; 95% CI, 0.33-0.94; P = 0.027). We observed the similar finding in esophageal cancer patients treated with pembrolizumab+CDDP+5-FU (P = 0.048). In addition, waist circumference was significantly associated with the prognostic nutritional index (P = 0.0073).

A high waist circumference was associated with favorable clinical outcomes in ICI-treated patients with unresectable or recurrent esophageal cancer, providing a platform for further investigations on the relationships among body composition, nutrition, and the immune status.