The impact of sarcopenia on survival and treatment tolerance in patients with head and neck cancer treated with chemoradiotherapy

Background Sarcopenia appears to be a negative prognostic factor for poor survival outcomes and worse treatment tolerance in patients with head-and-neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC). We evaluated sarcopenia's impact on overall survival (OS), disease-free survival (DFS) and chemo-radiation tolerance in patients with head-and-neck cancer (HNC) treated with chemoradiotherapy (CRT) from a monocentric observational study. Methods We identified patients with HNC treated by CRT between 2009 and 2018 with pretreatment imaging using positron emission tomography-computed tomography scans (PET/CT). Sarcopenia was measured using the pretreatment PET/CT at the L3 vertebral body using previously published methods. Clinical variables were retrospectively retrieved. Results Of 216 patients identified, 54 patients (25.47%) met the criteria for sarcopenia. These patients had a lower mean body mass index before treatment (21.92 vs. 25.65 cm/m(2), p < 0.001) and were more likely to have a history of smoking (88.89% vs. 71.52%, p = 0.01), alcohol use (55.56% vs. 38.61%, p = 0.03) and positive human papilloma virus status (67.74% vs. 41.75%, p = 0.011). At 3 years of follow-up, OS and DFS were 75% and 70% versus 82% and 85% for sarcopenic and non-sarcopenic patients, respectively (p = 0.1 and p = 0.00015). On multivariate analysis, sarcopenia appeared as a pejorative factor on DFS (hazard ratio 2.174, p = 0.0001) in the overall cohort. Sarcopenic patients did not require more chemotherapy and radiation-treatment interruptions and did not suffer from more chemo-induced and radiation-induced grade 3-4 toxicities than their non-sarcopenic counterparts. Conclusion Sarcopenia in HNSCC patients is an independent adverse prognostic factor for DFS after definitive chemoradiotherapy.