Sarcopenia is a reliable prognostic factor in patients with advanced pancreatic cancer receiving FOLFIRINOX chemotherapy

Background/objectives

FOLFIRINOX is the reliable treatments for pancreatic cancer, but it has a relatively high toxicity and the selection of suitable patients for this regimen remains challenge. On the other hand, sarcopenia is one of the important prognostic factors of pancreatic cancer. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of sarcopenia on overall survival (OS) and time to treatment failure (TTF) in patients with pancreatic cancer who received FOLFIRINOX.

Methods

Clinical data of consecutive patients treated with FOLFIRINOX at our institution from 2011 to 2017 was retrospectively reviewed. Skeletal muscle index (SMI) and adipose tissue index (ATI) at the third lumbar spine level was calculated from computed tomography (CT) images. The association between clinical factors (SMI and ATI), and OS and TTF were determined using univariate and multivariate analyses.

Results

We assessed 82 patients. The median OS of sarcopenia and the non-sarcopenia patients were 11.3 and 17.0 months, respectively (hazard ratio [HR], 2.49; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.43–4.32; p?=?0.001). Median TTF was 3.0 and 6.1 months in the sarcopenia and the non-sarcopenia patients, respectively (HR, 1.67; 95% CI, 1.03–2.71; p?=?0.032). Multivariate analyses revealed that sarcopenia (HR, 1.37; 95% CI, 1.01–1.87; p?=?0.045) was an independent prognostic factor of OS. High ATI (p?=?0.022) and sarcopenic obesity (p?=?0.008) were significantly associated with hematologic toxicity.

Conclusions

Sarcopenia is an independent indicator of poor prognosis in patients with pancreatic cancer who received FOLFIRINOX, while ATI and sarcopenic obesity predicted severe hematologic toxicity.