Association of Phase Angle with Overall Survival in Patients with Cancer: A Prospective Multicenter Cohort Study

Abstract

Low phase angle (PhA) is related with poor clinical status of cancer patients. The objective of this study was to establish sex- and age-specific cutoff points and examine the association between PhA and overall survival (OS) in Chinese cancer patients. This cohort study included data on 1,814 patients with cancer from December 2013 to October 2020. The association between low PhA and overall survival was analyzed using the Kaplan-Meier method and Cox regression model. Among 1,814 participants, there were 993 (54.70%) male and 821 (45.30%) female patients. The optimal cutoff points of low PhA were 4.8°, 4.2°, 4.4°, and 3.8° for the young male, elderly male, young female, and elderly female, respectively. Low PhA was independently associated with poorer OS in young female, elderly female and male (HR: 1.59, 95% CI: 1.08-2.34; HR: 1.65, 95% CI: 1.03-2.67; HR: 2.00, 95% CI: 1.45-2.75). In addition, low PhA was demonstrated to be an adverse prognostic factor in patients with lung cancer, colorectal cancer, and esophagus cancer (HR: 1.85, 95% CI: 1.39-2.47; HR: 2.05, 95% CI: 1.13-3.70; HR: 2.92, 95% CI: 1.49-5.71). Based on cutoff points, low PhA was associated with worse prognosis in patients with cancer.

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the INSCOC project members for their substantial work on data collection and patient follow-up.

Authors’ Contributions

CHS, WL and HPS designed the study; HXX, JWC, KHW and YDF contributed to recruited participants and data collection; YLZ performed statistical analysis and drafted this manuscript. CHS critically revised the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data Availability Statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, CHS, upon reasonable request.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program under Grant number 2017YFC1309200; and Henan University Science and Technology Innovation Talents Support Program under Grant number 19HASTIT005.