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=Volume 29 - 2023

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=Background 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. Methods The PubMed, EMBASE and Web of Science electronic databases were searched up to June 5, 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. Results A total of 31 retrospective studies involving 12434 patients were enrolled in this meta-analysis. The pooled results demonstrated that lower pretreatment was significantly associated with poorer OS (HR=1.53, P＜0.001). Besides, lower pretreatment SMI was also related with worse DFS (HR=1.39, P＜0.001) and CSS (HR=1.96, P＜0.001). Conclusion 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.