Postoperative development of sarcopenia is a strong predictor of a poor prognosis in patients with adenocarcinoma of the esophagogastric junction and upper gastric cancer

Background

There were few studies assessed the postoperative sarcopenia in patients with cancers. The objective of present study was to assess whether postoperative development of sarcopenia could predict a poor prognosis in patients with adenocarcinoma of esophagogastric junction, (AEG) and upper gastric cancer (UGC).

Methods

Patients with AEG and UGC who were judged as non-sarcopenic before surgery were reassessed the presence of postoperative development of sarcopenia 6 months after surgery. Patients were divided into the development group or non-development group, and clinicopathological factors and prognosis between these two groups were analyzed.

Results

The 5-year overall survival rates were significantly poorer in the development group than non-development group (68.0% vs. 92.6%, P?=?0.0118). Multivariate analyses showed that postoperative development of sarcopenia was an independent prognostic factor for poor overall survival (P?=?0.0237).

Conclusions

Postoperative development of sarcopenia was associated with a poor prognosis in patients with AEG and UGC.