A Combination of Preoperative Computed Tomography-Defined Sarcopenia and Systemic Inflammation on Survival in Patients with Poorly Differentiated Neuroendocrine Neoplasms Following Radical Resection

Abstract

This retrospective study of 122 patients with gastrointestinal poorly differentiated neuroendocrine neoplasms (GI-PDNEN) who underwent radical resection between January 2010 and December 2020 aimed to investigate the usefulness of combined computed tomography (CT)-defined sarcopenia and systemic inflammation to evaluate long-term prognoses for patients who underwent radical surgical resection. Sarcopenia, based on a pre-defined L3 skeletal muscle index cutoff value, was assessed using preoperative abdominal CT images. Patients (neuroendocrine carcinoma, 86 patients; mixed adenoneuroendocrine carcinoma, 36 patients) were divided into low-, intermediate-, and high-risk groups using sarcopenia scores and neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratios (SNLRs). Higher SNLRs were significantly associated with higher age (P = 0.004), larger tumor size (P = 0.042), lower body mass index (P = 0.042), and lower hemoglobin (P = 0.001) and albumin (P = 0.031) levels. Multivariate analysis indicated that a higher SNLR was an independent risk factor for poor overall survival (OS, P = 0.01) and relapse-free survival (RFS, P = 0.001) in patients with GI-PDNEN postoperatively. Sarcopenia and a higher NLR were significantly associated with poor RFS and OS following radical resection. The SNLR had a definite predictive prognostic value in preoperatively identifying patients with GI-PDNEN and a probable poor long-term prognosis, especially those with neuroendocrine carcinoma.

Authors’ Contributions

Jie Jia and Xiangyu Zeng contributed equally to this work. Peng Zhang and Kaixiong Tao supervised the entire project. Chengguo Li and Yongzhou Huang collected the data. Xin Tong, Qi Jiang and Lei Yang conducted the data analyses. Jie Jia and Lei Yang drafted the manuscript. All the authors critically reviewed the article and approved the final manuscript.

Disclosure Statement

The authors confirm that there is no conflict of interest to declare.

Ethics Approval and Consent to Participate

This retrospective study complied with the standards of the Declaration of Helsinki and was approved by the Ethics Committee of Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology (NO. 2021-0181).

Additional information

Funding

This study was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant numbers 82072736, 81874184, 81702386). Natural Science Foundation of Hubei Province (2021CFB566)