Abstract
Purpose: Sarcopenia has been considered a poor prognostic factor in various malignant diseases. However, the studies that evaluated the association between CT-determined sarcopenia and outcome in breast cancer patients reported different results. Therefore, the aim of the present study is to perform a systematic review of the current literature on the evaluation of body CT-determined sarcopenia in breast cancer patients, focusing on the correlation with outcome values. Methods: Two reviewers evaluated independently all studies dealing with CT-determined sarcopenia in breast cancer women from major medical libraries up to 24 April 2019. The keywords used for database searching were: “sarcopenia” or “muscles” or “muscle weight” or “body composition” and “breast neoplasms” or “breast cancer” and “computed tomography”. Studies reporting clinical outcome values were finally compared. Results: Of the n = 191 studies identified, a total of n = 15 articles were included in the systematic review. In all studies, sarcopenia was assessed at the level of the third lumbar vertebra (L3) on CT; n = 14/15 studies were retrospective. N = 13/15 studies evaluated the impact of sarcopenia on clinical outcomes. Among these studies, n = 8/13 studies concluded that sarcopenia is an important risk factor for poor prognosis in breast cancer and n = 5/13 studies concluded that body composition changes are not associated with poor prognosis. Conclusions: Most studies concluded that sarcopenia assessed on CT is an important prognostic risk factor in breast cancer patients. High-quality prospective studies to strongly confirm and assess the impact of sarcopenia evaluated on CT and breast cancer outcome are needed.
Original language | English |
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Article number | 100154 |
Journal | Cancer Treatment and Research Communications |
Volume | 21 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2019 |
Keywords
- Body composition
- Breast cancer
- Clinical outcome
- Computed tomography
- Sarcopenia
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Oncology
- Cancer Research