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. 2021 Jan-Feb;35(1):401-410.
doi: 10.21873/invivo.12271.

Sarcopenia may Influence the Prognosis in Advanced Thyroid Cancer Patients Treated With Molecular Targeted Therapy

Akihiro Nishiyama  1 , Yukiko Staub  2 , Yukio Suga  2 , Mikiya Fujita  2 , Azusa Tanimoto  3 , Koushiro Ohtsubo  3 , Seiji Yano  3
Affiliations

Sarcopenia may Influence the Prognosis in Advanced Thyroid Cancer Patients Treated With Molecular Targeted Therapy

Akihiro Nishiyama et al. In Vivo. 2021 Jan-Feb.

Abstract

Background/aim: Reportedly, sarcopenia and nutritional status are associated with prognosis in cancer patients. However, data regarding the relationship of these factors with advanced thyroid cancer patients receiving molecular targeted therapy remains scarce. Therefore, we investigated the relationship between nutritional assessment, as well as sarcopenia, and prognosis in patients with advanced thyroid cancer undergoing molecular targeted therapy.

Patients and methods: In this retrospective study, sarcopenia and several markers of nutritional status were assessed in advanced thyroid cancer patients at the Kanazawa University Hospital, before the introduction of molecular targeted therapy.

Results: Advanced thyroid cancer patients with sarcopenia presented a worse prognosis than those without sarcopenia. Additionally, sarcopenia strongly correlated with several markers of nutritional status, such as albumin, prognostic nutrition index, and Glasgow prognostic score.

Conclusion: Sarcopenia could be a prognostic factor in patients with advanced thyroid cancer receiving molecular targeted therapy.

Keywords: Sarcopenia; advanced thyroid cancer patient; molecular targeted therapy; nutritional assessment.

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Conflict of interest statement

SY obtained a research grant from Eisai Inc. Other Authors have no potential conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Overall survival (OS), progression-free survival (PFS), and treatment time (TP) for all patients with advanced thyroid cancer treated with molecular targeted therapy. The Kaplan-Meier curves estimating OS (a), PFS (b), and TP (c) in 23 patients with advanced thyroid cancer.
Figure 2
Figure 2. Overall survival (OS), progression-free survival (PFS), and treatment time (TP) for differentiated thyroid cancer patients treated with molecular targeted therapy. The Kaplan-Meier curves estimating OS (a), PFS (b), and TP (c) in 18 differentiated thyroid cancer patients
Figure 3
Figure 3. The correlation value of sarcopenia and several nutrition indexes. SARC: Sarcopenia; BMI: body mass index; Alb: albumin; PNI: prognostic nutrition index; GPS: Glasgow prognostic score; NLR: neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio; PLR: platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio; CAR: CRPalbumin ratio; *p<0.05, **p<0.01, ***p<0.001
Figure 4
Figure 4. The adverse effects unique to the sarcopenia and non-sarcopenia groups
Figure 5
Figure 5. The hematological toxicities do not significantly differ between the sarcopenia group and non-sarcopenia groups. WBC: White blood cell; NEU: neutrophil; PLT: platelet
Figure 6
Figure 6. The non-hematological toxicities do not significantly differ between the sarcopenia and non-sarcopenia groups. AST: Aspirate aminotransferase; ALT: alanine aminotransferase
Figure 7
Figure 7. Complications related to molecular targeted therapy do not significantly differ between the sarcopenia and non-sarcopenia groups
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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