![Sample our Health and Social Care journals, sign in here to start your FREE access for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5938/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Health-Social-Care.jpg"})
ABSTRACT
Sarcopenia, defined as low-skeletal muscle mass (LSMM), can be assessed by imaging modalities. Our aim was to establish the effect of LSMM on overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) in gastric cancer patients undergoing palliative chemotherapy based on a large patient sample. MEDLINE library, Cochrane and SCOPUS databases were screened for the associations between LSMM and mortality in advanced gastric cancer patients. The primary endpoint of the systematic review was the hazard ratio of LSMM on OS and PFS. In total, seven studies were suitable for the analysis and included into the present study. The included studies comprised 668 patients with advanced gastric cancer. The identified frequency of LSMM was 48.05%. The pooled hazard ratio for the effect of LSMM on OS was 1.31 [95% CI 0.96–1.77], p = 0.08, in univariate analysis and 1.21 [95% CI 0.94–1.56], p = 0.13, in multivariate analysis. For PFS, the pooled hazard ratio for the effect of LSMM on PFS was 1.76 [95% CI 0.66–4.66], p = 0.26. LSMM did not significantly affect OS and PFS in patients with advanced gastric cancer undergoing palliative chemotherapy. Further research is needed to elucidate possible influences of LSMM on survival in this tumor entity.
Disclosure Statement
We declare no competing interests.
Funding
The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.
Data Availability Statement
The data can be provided upon reasonable request by the corresponding author.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Hans-Jonas Meyer
AS, AW, and HJM designed the study. AS and HJM collected the data. AW analyzed and interpreted the data. HJM and AS contributed to the writing of the manuscript.