Association between Temporal Muscle Thickness and Overall Survival in Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Patients with Brain Metastasis

Abstract

Temporal muscle thickness (TMT) has recently been suggested as a novel biomarker of sarcopenia in head and neck malignancies. However, few studies have evaluated TMT as a prognostic marker in patients with brain metastasis. This study investigated the association of TMT with overall survival (OS) in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients with brain metastasis. The records of all NSCLC patients with brain metastasis between 2009 and 2018 at St. Vincent’s Hospital were reviewed retrospectively. A total of 221 patients met our eligibility criteria. In the group with TMT thicker than the median, OS was longer than the group with TMT thinner than the median (240 days versus 139 days, p = 0.014). In multivariate analysis, the thicker TMT group had longer survival (HR 0.73 CI 0.56–0.96, p = 0.024). Male (HR 1.58 CI 1.19–2.09, p = 0.002) and older age (≥65 years) (HR 2.05 CI 1.53–2.74, p p = 0.009). Our findings suggest that TMT can be a useful biomarker for OS in NSCLC patients with brain metastasis.

Keywords

• sarcopenia
• temporal muscle
• neoplasm metastases
• brain neoplasm
• lung neoplasm
• survival analysis