ArticleCancer medicine2023
SARC-F as a screening tool to detect computed tomography-based sarcopenia and myosteatosis among older adults with cancer.
Article in Cancer medicine, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
9 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 11 citations in OpenAlex.
- Effect of adipose-related parameters on mortality in patients with liver cirrhosis: a meta-analysis.Annals of medicine · 2025Pooled it
- Nutritional pathways from treatment to management of sarcopenia in patients with gastric cancer: a narrative review.Korean journal of family medicine · 2026Review
- Diagnostic Performance of Four Screening Tools for Detecting Low Muscle Mass and Sarcopenia in Preoperative Older Japanese Patients with Colorectal Cancer According to the AWGS 2019 Criteria.Journal of frailty, sarcopenia and falls · 2026Article
- Reliability and Clinical Validity of the SARC-Global Questionnaire for Sarcopenia and Sarcopenic Obesity in Spanish Older Adults.Nutrients · 2025Article
- Predictive model for sarcopenia in patients with non-small cell lung cancer and malignant pleural effusion.BMC cancer · 2025Article
- Risk of sarcopenia, frailty and malnutrition as predictors of postoperative delirium in surgery.BMC geriatrics · 2024Article
- Pancreatic cancer and sarcopenia: a narrative review of the current status.International journal of clinical oncology · 2024Review
- Sarcopenia and Pleural Mesothelioma: The Current Knowledge.Muscles (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Review
- SARC-F as a screening tool to detect computed tomography-based sarcopenia and myosteatosis among older adults with cancer.Cancer medicine · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundThe European Working Group on Sarcopenia in Older People (EWGSOP) recommends SARC-F as a tool for identifying sarcopenia among older adults. However, the role of SARC-F among older adults with cancer remains unexplored. We aimed to evaluate the diagnostic utility of SARC-F to identify those with sarcopenia, or low muscle mass (using skeletal muscle index [SMI]), and myosteatosis (using skeletal muscle density [SMD]) from computed tomography (CT) imaging and the association of SARC-F with all-cause mortality.
methodsOlder adults (≥60 years) presenting for initial consultation at UAB medical oncology clinic who underwent geriatric assessment were enrolled in a prospective cohort study. We identified study participants who completed SARC-F screening and had available CT imaging within 60 days of study enrollment. Using single-slice CT images at the L3 vertebral level, we computed SMI and SMD using published methods. Sarcopenia and myosteatosis were defined using published cutpoints. We calculated the sensitivity and specificity of SARC-F for detecting low muscle mass and low muscle density using published thresholds. Finally, we computed the impact of SARC-F and CT measures on overall survival using Kaplan-Meier curves and Cox regression models, after adjusting for age, sex, cancer type, and cancer stage.
resultsWe identified 212 older adults with a median age of 68.8 years; with 60.8% males, 76.6% whites, and pancreatic cancer (21.2%) being the most common malignancy. In the overall cohort, 30.7% had abnormal SARC-F using published cutpoints. SARC-F ≥ 4 had a sensitivity of 35% and a specificity of 76% to identify low muscle mass. SARC-F ≥ 4 had a sensitivity of 38% and a specificity of 74% to identify low muscle density. Those with SARC-F ≥ 4 and low SMI/SMD had worse survival compared to those with low SMI/SMD alone. Incorporating SARC-F improved survival prognostication beyond SMI and SMD (HR = 3.1; p < 0.001; Harrel's C from 0.73 to 0.76).
conclusionsSARC-F as a screening tool has limited diagnostic utility for identifying older adults with low muscle mass and/or density. However, SARC-F retains prognostic value independent of CT-based muscle measures in predicting mortality among older adults with cancer.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.