Sarcopenia as a Prognostic Factor in Patients with Hepatoblastoma: Does It Influence Surgical Outcomes and Survival? Preliminary Retrospective Study

Sarcopenia is associated with poor prognosis in adult oncologic patients, with little evidence of this association in pediatric population, including hepatoblastoma. Retrospective study in patients with hepatoblastoma, divided into those with or without sarcopenia. Sarcopenia was assessed by measuring psoas muscle area (PMA) at L4-L5 level on the CT/MR and defined as z-score values ≤ 2. Relapse and mortality were analyzed. Twenty-one patients (57.1% male) were included, with median age 35.7 months (IQR: 23.5–58.5). Seven (33.3%) had sarcopenia on initial studies compared to 14 (66.7%) who did not. No differences were found between groups in age, weight, PRETEXT, surgical treatment or. α-fetoprotein levels. Sarcopenia was associated with a higher rate of metastases at diagnosis (49.2% vs 0.0%; p = 0.026) and surgical complications (57.1% vs 21.4%, p = 0.047). After a median follow-up of 65.1 months (1.7–144.8), 2 patients (28.6%) had tumor relapse in sarcopenic group compared to 1 (7.1%) in non-sarcopenic group. Two patients died in sarcopenic group and 1 in non-sarcopenic group. Median event-free survival (EFS) was lower in sarcopenic group (100.38 ± 25.63 vs 118.91 ± 11.52 months) as well as overall survival (OS) (101.72 ± 24.86 vs 121.78 ± 8.75 months) with no statistical significance. Five-year EFS was also lower in sarcopenic group (71% vs 93%) as well as 5-year OS (71% vs 87%). Sarcopenia at diagnosis was associated with a higher rate of metastases and surgical complications in hepatoblastoma. Our data shows the first evidence of its role as a possible poor prognostic factor, influencing survival and risk of relapse. II. Original article. Retrospective study •What is currently known about this topic? Sarcopenia has been associated with bad outcomes in adult patients with cancer. It has been described as a prognostic factor for neuroblastoma and hematological malignancies.•What new information is contained in this article? Sarcopenia at diagnosis of hepatoblastoma is associated with an increased risk of postoperative complications. These patients have worse outcomes in terms of OS and EFS.