Pathology and Oncology Research (Apr 2023)

Prognostic role of pretreatment skeletal muscle index in gastric cancer patients: A meta-analysis

  • Xiaohong He,
  • Xiaohong He,
  • Sicheng Zhou,
  • Hongjun Li,
  • Yue Gou,
  • Dan Jia

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3389/pore.2023.1611055
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 29

Abstract

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Background: The association between pretreatment skeletal muscle index (SMI) and long-term survival of gastric cancer patients remains unclear up to now. The aim of this meta-analysis was to identify the prognostic value of pretreatment SMI in gastric cancer.Methods: The PubMed, EMBASE and Web of Science electronic databases were searched up to 5 June 2022 for relevant studies. The primary outcome was overall survival (OS) and the second outcomes were disease-free survival (DFS) and cancer-specific survival (CSS). The hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were combined to assess the relationship between pretreatment SMI and survival of gastric cancer patients. All statistical analyses were conducted by STATA 15.0 software.Results: A total of 31 retrospective studies involving 12,434 patients were enrolled in this meta-analysis. The pooled results demonstrated that lower pretreatment was significantly associated with poorer OS (HR = 1.53, p < 0.001). Besides, lower pretreatment SMI was also related with worse DFS (HR = 1.39, p < 0.001) and CSS (HR = 1.96, p < 0.001).Conclusion: Pretreatment SMI was significantly associated with prognosis of gastric cancer patients and lower SMI predicted worse survival. However, more prospective high-quality studies are still needed to verify our findings.

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