Effect of sarcopenia on short- and long-term outcomes in patients with gastric neuroendocrine neoplasms after radical gastrectomy: results from a large, two-institution series

Background: The relationship between sarcopenia and the prognoses of patients with gastric neuroendocrine neoplasms (g-NENs) is unclear. This study was designed to explore the effects of sarcopenia on short-term and long-term outcomes of patients with g-NENs after radical gastrectomy.

Methods: This study retrospectively collected data from 138 patients with g-NENs after radical gastrectomy. The skeletal muscle index (SMI) diagnostic threshold for sarcopenia was determined using X-tile software. Cox regression analyses were performed to determine the independent risk factors for 3-year overall survival (OS) and 3-year recurrence-free survival (RFS).

Results: In this study, 59 patients (42.8%) were diagnosed with sarcopenia. Among patients in the sarcopenia group and nonsarcopenia group, the incidences of total postoperative complications were 33.9 and 30.4%, incidences of serious postoperative complications were 0 and 3.7%, incidences of postoperative surgical complications were 13.6 and 15.2%, and incidences of postoperative systemic complications were 20.3 and 15.2%, respectively (all p > 0.05). The 3-year OS and RFS rates were significantly worse in the sarcopenia group than in the nonsarcopenia group (OS: 42.37% vs 65.82%, p = 0.004; RFS: 52.54% vs 68.35%, p = 0.036). The multivariate analysis revealed a relation between sarcopenia and the long-term prognoses of patients with g-NENs. A stratified analysis based on the pathological type revealed that the Kaplan-Meier curve was only significantly different in patients with gastric mixed adenoneuroendocrine carcinoma (gMANEC) (OS: 40.00% vs 71.79%, p = 0.007; RFS: 51.43% vs 74.36%, p = 0.026); furthermore, the multivariate analysis identified sarcopenia as an independent risk factor for patients with gMANEC (p < 0.05).

Conclusions: Sarcopenia is not related to the short-term prognoses of patients with g-NENs. Sarcopenia is an independent risk factor for patients with gMANEC after radical surgery.