AUTHOR=He Xiaohong , Zhou Sicheng , Li Hongjun , Gou Yue , Jia Dan 

TITLE=Prognostic role of pretreatment skeletal muscle index in gastric cancer patients: A meta-analysis

JOURNAL=Pathology and Oncology Research

VOLUME=29

YEAR=2023

URL=https://www.por-journal.com/journals/pathology-and-oncology-research/articles/10.3389/pore.2023.1611055

DOI=10.3389/pore.2023.1611055

ISSN=1532-2807

ABSTRACT=<p><bold>Background:</bold> The association between pretreatment skeletal muscle index (SMI) and long-term survival of gastric cancer patients remains unclear up to now. The aim of this meta-analysis was to identify the prognostic value of pretreatment SMI in gastric cancer.</p><p><bold>Methods:</bold> The PubMed, EMBASE and Web of Science electronic databases were searched up to 5 June 2022 for relevant studies. The primary outcome was overall survival (OS) and the second outcomes were disease-free survival (DFS) and cancer-specific survival (CSS). The hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were combined to assess the relationship between pretreatment SMI and survival of gastric cancer patients. All statistical analyses were conducted by STATA 15.0 software.</p><p><bold>Results:</bold> A total of 31 retrospective studies involving 12,434 patients were enrolled in this meta-analysis. The pooled results demonstrated that lower pretreatment was significantly associated with poorer OS (HR = 1.53, <italic>p</italic> &lt; 0.001). Besides, lower pretreatment SMI was also related with worse DFS (HR = 1.39, <italic>p</italic> &lt; 0.001) and CSS (HR = 1.96, <italic>p</italic> &lt; 0.001).</p><p><bold>Conclusion:</bold> Pretreatment SMI was significantly associated with prognosis of gastric cancer patients and lower SMI predicted worse survival. However, more prospective high-quality studies are still needed to verify our findings.</p>