Clinical impact of sarcopenia assessment in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma undergoing treatments

Abstract

Changes in body composition are associated with poor outcomes in cancer patients including hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Sarcopenia, defined as the loss of skeletal muscle mass, quality and function, has been associated with a higher rate of complications and recurrences in patients with cirrhosis and HCC. The assessment of patient general status before HCC treatment, including the presence of sarcopenia, is a key-point for achieving therapy tolerability and to avoid short- and long-term complications leading to poor patients' survival. Thus, we aimed to review the current literature evaluating the role of sarcopenia assessment related to HCC treatments and to critically provide the clinicians with the most recent and valuable evidence. As a result, sarcopenia can be predictive of poor outcomes in patients undergoing liver resection, transplantation and systemic therapies, offering the chance to clinicians to improve the muscular status of these patients, especially those with high-grade sarcopenia at high risk of mortality. Further studies are needed to clarify the predictive value of sarcopenia in other HCC treatment settings and to evaluate its role as an additional staging tool for identifying the most appropriate treatment. Besides, interventional studies aiming at increasing the skeletal muscle mass for reducing complications and increasing the survival in patients with HCC are needed.

Keywords: Hepatocellular carcinoma; Liver resection; Sarcopenia; Sorafenib.

Fig. 1

The Computed Tomography images of two different patients (fist: a, b, c; second: d, e, f) demonstrated two large hepatic lesions consistent with hepatocellular carcinoma due to the arterialization (arrows in a and d) coupled with wash-out of contrast media in the delayed phases (arrows in b and e). The diagnosis was confirmed by histology after surgical treatments in both patients. The evaluations at the level of the soma of the third lumbar vertebra by using dedicated free software revealed no sarcopenia in the first patient (c) and sarcopenia in the second one (f)