High Visceral Fat is Associated with a Worse Survival after Liver Resection for Intrahepatic Cholangiocarcinoma

Abstract

The impact of body composition (BC) on the prognosis of resected intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (ICC) has been poorly studied. Aims: i) to evaluate the prevalence of low muscle mass (MM) in patients; ii) to assess the impact of BC on patient overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS), and iii) on the incidence of postoperative complications. All consecutive patients who underwent liver resection for ICC between 2004 and 2016 and who had preoperative CT scans were included. Ninety-three patients were included. Sixty percent (55/91) had low total MM. On multivariable analysis, high visceral fat (HR 2.48, CI95% [1.63; 3.77], p < 0.0001), nodules >1 (HR 3.15 [1.67; 5.93], p = 0.0004), involvement adjacent organ (HR 6.67 [1.88; 23.69], p = 0.003), and postoperative sepsis (HR 3.04 [1.54; 5.99], p = 0.0013) were independently associated with OS. High visceral fat (HR 2.10 [1.31; 3.38], p = 0.002], nodules >1 (HR 3.01, [1.49; 6.10], p = 0.002), postoperative sepsis (HR 5.16 [2.24; 11.89], p = 0.0001), ASA score (p = 0.02) and perineural invasion (HR 3.30 [1.62; 6.76], p = 0.001) were independently associated with lower DFS. Conclusion: 60% of ICC patients had low MM before surgery. High visceral fat, but not muscle mass, was an independent prognostic factor for poor OS and DFS in European patients with resected ICC.

Acknowledgments

The authors thank M. Pete Tucker and M. Eric Stein for editing the English text.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.