Prognostic impact of the psoas muscle index, a parameter of sarcopenia, in patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma treated with rituximab-based chemoimmunotherapy

Abstract

Muscle mass, defined as the psoas muscle index (PMI), is an important parameter of sarcopenia and it has been shown to be a prognostic factor of non-hematological cancers. This study aimed to investigate the prognostic impact of sarcopenia defined using PMI measurement in patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma treated with R-CHOP. We retrospectively investigated the impact of pretreatment PMI on survival and response to treatment. One hundred and twenty patients with DLBCL were included in the study, of whom 65 had baseline sarcopenia according to the defined PMI cutoffs. Sarcopenic patients displayed a worse response to treatment compared with non-sarcopenic patients. In a multivariate analysis, sarcopenia remained predictive of outcomes for overall survival (p = .009), progression free survival (p = .028), and response to treatment (p = .006). Sarcopenia defined by evaluating PMI is a simple and routinely applicable method that can predict poor outcomes in patients with DLBCL.

Keywords:

• Sarcopenia
• diffuse large B-cell lymphoma
• prognosis
• chemoimmunotherapy
• psoas muscle index

Disclosure statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Ethical approval

This study was approved by the Institutional Review Board of Akdeniz University Hospital and conducted in accordance with the Good Clinical practice guidelines and Declaration of Helsinki. Informed consent was waived because of the retrospective nature of the study.

Author contributions

U. ILTAR developed the study concept. U. ILTAR, H. SÖZEL, Y.K. SÖZEL, U. ATAS, O.K. YÜCEL, O. SALİM, F. AYDIN, L. ÜNDAR performed the study. U. ILTAR wrote the manuscript. All authors critically reviewed the manuscript.