P34: The prognostic value of pre-treatment sarcopenia in overall survival in head and neck cancer patients: A systematic review

Abstract Background This study aims to determine the prognostic value of pre-treatment sarcopenia, defined radiologically at the cervical (C3) or lumbar (L3) region, in head and neck (HNC) adult patient population undergoing treatment with curative intention. Methods A systematic search in the PubMed and Scopus databases was performed before February 2022. The inclusion criteria applied were adult patients with locally advanced HNC, sarcopenia defined radiologically at the C3 and/or L3 level, and patients receiving primary treatment with curative intent. The certainty of study evidence was assessed using the ROBINS-I scale, the Cochrane method for assessing bias in non-randomised trials. Results Twenty-six studies were included in this review, totalling 6395 adult patients with HNC. It was evident that pre-treatment sarcopenia was associated with worse overall survival outcomes in 22 out of 26 (85%) studies across all the treatment modalities with curative intent. In addition, the gender-specific skeletal muscle index (SMI) sarcopenic cut-off value of <52.4 cm2/m2 for men and <38.5 cm2/m2 for women, was significantly associated with worse OS compared to other cut-off values seen in a minority of studies. Conclusions Despite the retrospective design of the studies and inconsistency in SMI cut-off values, these findings suggest that sarcopenia is a strong prognostic factor of overall survival in HNC patients undergoing primary curative treatment. The clinical implications of these findings suggest that sarcopenia evaluation is a good prognostic marker in the HNC population. Future nutritional interventional studies might focus on reversing the muscle loss and improving the overall outcomes in identified sarcopenic individuals.