Research Paper|Volume 16, Issue 1|pp 389—401

The predictive value of sarcopenia and myosteatosis in trans-arterial (chemo)-embolization treated HCC patients

Jing Long¹, Xin Zhang¹, Wei Mi¹, Jianjun Shi¹, Hongwei Ren², Qiang Wang¹

¹Department of Interventional Radiology, Tianyou Hospital Affiliated to Wuhan University of Science and Technology, Hubei, P.R. China
²Department of Imaging, Tianyou Hospital Affiliated to Wuhan University of Science and Technology, Hubei, P.R. China

Received: July 7, 2023Accepted: November 15, 2023Published: January 5, 2024

https://doi.org/10.18632/aging.205375

Copyright: © 2024 Long et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Abstract

Background: We conducted a meta-analysis to provide evidence-based results for the predictive values of sarcopenia, skeletal muscle index, psoas muscle index and the myosteatosis regarding the impact of survival outcomes and tumor response in patients treated by trans-arterial (chemo)-embolization (TAE/TACE), thereby optimizing therapeutic strategies and maximizing clinical benefits for hepatocellular carcinoma patients.

Methods: Qualified studies were retrieved from PubMed, the Cochrane Library, EMBASE, and Google Scholar before June 19, 2023. We investigated the relationships between sarcopenia, SMI, PMI, myosteatosis, and the overall survival of TAE/TACE-treated hepatocellular carcinoma patients with pooling data.

Results: A total of 167 studies were collected and 12 studies were finally included for analysis. The meta-analysis assisted that the sarcopenia (HR: 1.46, 95% CI: 1.30–1.64, p < 0.001), skeletal muscle index (HR: 1.48, 95% CI: 1.29–1.69, p < 0.001), and psoas muscle index (HR: 1.45, 95% CI: 1.19–1.77, p < 0.001) were significantly related to a shorter OS of hepatocellular carcinoma patients who treated by TAE/TACE. Sarcopenia significantly contributed to a lower objective response rate of TAE/TACE treated hepatocellular carcinoma patients (OR: 0.80, 95% CI: 0.65–0.98, p = 0.032). But there was no significant association between the myosteatosis and the overall survival (HR: 1.29, 95% CI: 0.74–2.25, p = 0.366). Sensitivity analysis supported the stability and dependability of above analyses conclusions.

Conclusion: Sarcopenia, skeletal muscle index and psoas muscle index, are significant prognostic predictors for TAE/TACE treated hepatocellular carcinoma patients. While myosteasis does not demonstrate a prognostic impact on the overall survival of TAE/TACE treated hepatocellular carcinoma patients.