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. 2021 Jun;29(6):3411-3420.
doi: 10.1007/s00520-021-06025-y. Epub 2021 Feb 6.

The association between sarcopenia and quality of life in patients undergoing colorectal cancer surgery: an exploratory study

Alex Besson  1   2 , Irene Deftereos  1   3 , Karla Gough  4   5 , Danielle Taylor  1   2 , Roland Shannon  1 , Justin M Yeung  6   7   8
Affiliations

The association between sarcopenia and quality of life in patients undergoing colorectal cancer surgery: an exploratory study

Alex Besson et al. Support Care Cancer. 2021 Jun.

Erratum in

Abstract

Objective: To describe changes in health-related quality of life (QoL) from before colorectal cancer (CRC) surgery to 1 and 3-month post-surgery in patients diagnosed pre-operatively as sarcopenic or non-sarcopenic by computed tomography (CT) analysis.

Methods: Secondary analysis of a prospective observational cohort study with one pre-operative and two post-operative assessments. Patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) were collected at each timepoint using Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Colorectal and the EuroQol-5D (EQ-5D) questionnaires. Pre-operative staging CT scans of the third lumbar vertebra (axial slice) were analysed using Slice-O-Matic Software to determine if patients had CT defined sarcopenia by employing sex-specific threshold values for skeletal muscle index. Patient-reported outcome measure scores were compared with minimal clinical important difference estimates to determine if changes were clinically significant.

Results: Twenty-five of 40 patients were found to be sarcopenic. The difference between sarcopenic groups on the EQ-5D was medium-sized and clinically significant, with the sarcopenic group reporting lower health status. The non-sarcopenic group displayed a clinically significant reduction in physical wellbeing post-operatively. The sarcopenic group did not demonstrate a clinically important reduction in physical wellbeing. For functional wellbeing, the sarcopenic group recorded a clinically significant reduction at the 1-month timepoint, trending back towards baseline by the 3-month timepoint. The non-sarcopenic group recorded almost no change in functional scores.

Conclusion: This study explored the novel concept of the effect of sarcopenia on QoL in the CRC surgical setting. Clinically significant changes were identified at both post-operative timepoints. This highlights an important proof of concept that PROMs can detect meaningful clinical change in CRC patients in the context of sarcopenia and should be further explored.

Keywords: Colorectal cancer; Quality of life; Sarcopenia; Surgery.

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