Impacts of sarcopenia on adverse events and prognosis in Chinese patients with esophageal cancer undergoing chemoradiotherapy.

Background: Sarcopenia is a common indicator of systemic nutritional status in patients with cancer progression. This study investigated the impacts of sarcopenia on adverse effects and prognosis of sarcopenia on patients with esophageal cancer receiving chemoradiotherapy. Methods: The clinical data of 158 patients with initially diagnosed esophageal cancer who received chemoradiotherapy were collected, and nutritional indexes and inflammatory markers were calculated. The cross-sectional areas of the skeletal muscle, subcutaneous fat and visceral fat were calculated using computed tomography (CT) images of the midpoint of the third lumbar (L3) vertebra. The incidence of adverse events, response evaluation, 1-year and 3-year overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) were compared between sarcopenia group and non-sarcopenia groups. Results: This study included 158 patients, 103 (71.5%) in the sarcopenia group and 45 (28.5%) in the non-sarcopenia group. The last follow-up date was January 31, 2024. The median follow-up time was 36 months for all patients. The chi-square test revealed no significant difference in the incidence of serious adverse events between the two groups. The complete response rates (CR) of patients in the sarcopenia and non-sarcopenia groups 1 month after chemoradiotherapy were 2.7 and 13.3%, respectively, Conclusion: Sarcopenia reduced OS in patients with EC treated with chemoradiotherapy. It can be used as an independent indicator to predict the OS of such patients, which may help in developing optimal treatment strategies.