To evaluate the prognostic impact of sarcopenia and myosteatosis on survival after radical cystectomy for bladder cancer.
We retrospectively reviewed consecutive patients who underwent radical cystectomy for bladder cancer between 2010 and 2019, and 123 patients were finally included in this single-center study. Pretreatment computed tomography images at the L3 level were used to calculate skeletal muscle index and skeletal muscle density. Sarcopenia and myosteatosis were diagnosed according to the gender-specific cutoff values of skeletal muscle index and skeletal muscle density used in a previous study. We compared overall survival and cancer-specific survival between patients with and without sarcopenia/myosteatosis. We also performed Cox proportional regression analyses to identify the predictors of overall survival and cancer-specific survival.
The median patient age was 74 years, and 20 patients (16%) were female. Thirty-eight patients (31%) died from bladder cancer and 13 (11%) died from other causes. The patients with sarcopenia (n = 48, 39%) and those with myosteatosis (n = 101, 82%) had significantly lower overall survival and cancer-specific survival rates than those without sarcopenia and those without myosteatosis, respectively. In multivariable analysis, in addition to the number of pathological risk factors, both sarcopenia (P < 0.01) and myosteatosis (P = 0.04) were independent significant predictors of poor cancer-specific survival.
In our experience, sarcopenia and myosteatosis are independent predictors of poor cancer-specific survival in patients undergoing radical cystectomy for bladder cancer. Sarcopenia is also associated with poor overall survival.
International journal of urology : official journal of the Japanese Urological Association. 2021 Apr 05 [Epub ahead of print]
Shimpei Yamashita, Takashi Iguchi, Hiroyuki Koike, Takahito Wakamiya, Kazuro Kikkawa, Yasuo Kohjimoto, Isao Hara
Department of Urology, Wakayama Medical University, Wakayama, Japan.