Sarcopenia is associated with higher toxicity and poor prognosis of nasopharyngeal carcinoma

Abstract

Background: Given the growing evidence that sarcopenia is associated with toxicity and survival in various cancers, we investigated its significance in patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) receiving concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CCRT). Methods: In this retrospective analysis, we studied 862 NPC patients who had received CCRT between 2010 and 2014. Sarcopenia was determined using routine pre-radiotherapy computed tomography (CT) simulation scans at the third cervical vertebral level. Receiver-operating characteristic curve analyses were used to determine the optimal cutoff values. Propensity score matching (PSM) was applied to develop comparable cohorts of patients with or without sarcopenia. Results: A total of 862 patients were included as the primary cohort, and 308 patients were matched and regarded as the matched cohort. In the primary cohort, the 5-year overall survival (OS), locoregional recurrence-free survival, and distant metastasis-free survival (DMFS) rates for the sarcopenia group versus non-sarcopenia group were 78.2% versus 93.6% ( p < 0.001), 89.4% versus 87.9% ( p = 0.918), and 82.5% versus 89.0% ( p = 0.007), respectively. Univariate and multivariate survival analyses revealed that sarcopenia was an independent predictor of OS ( p < 0.001 and p < 0.001) and DMFS ( p = 0.009, p = 0.034). Patients with sarcopenia experienced significantly higher rates of treatment-related toxicities compared with patients without sarcopenia ( p = 0.032). In addition, patients with sarcopenia also experienced significantly worse treatment response than those without sarcopenia ( p = 0.004). Similar results were found in a PSM cohort. Conclusion: The current findings support that sarcopenia is a promising indicator for predicting clinical outcomes in NPC patients receiving CCRT. A simple and rapid analysis on CT simulation images can provide information about the therapeutic toxicity and survival prognosis, consequently guiding personalized multi-modality interventions during CCRT.