Prevalence of sarcopenia in patients with solid tumors: A meta-analysis based on 81,814 patients.

[BACKGROUND] The purpose of the present meta-analysis was to analyze the prevalence of sarcopenia on staging computed tomography (CT) in patients with different malignant solid tumors and in different oncologic settings based on a large sample.

[METHODS] MEDLINE, Cochrane, and SCOPUS literature databases were screened for prevalence of sarcopenia in oncologic patients up to December 2021. Overall, 280 studies met the inclusion criteria. The methodological quality of the involved studies was checked according to the Quality Assessment of Diagnostic Studies instrument. The meta-analysis was undertaken by using RevMan 5.4 software. DerSimonian and Laird random-effects models with inverse-variance weights were used.

[RESULTS] The included 280 studies comprised 81,814 patients with different tumors. The prevalence of sarcopenia over all included studies was 35.3%. A prevalence of sarcopenia >50% was identified in esophageal cancer, urothelial cancer, cholangiocarcinoma, prostate cancer, sarcomas, and thyroid cancer. In head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, pancreatic cancer, lung cancer, renal cell cancer, and ovarian cancer, the prevalence of sarcopenia varied between 35% and 50%. In colorectal cancer, gastric cancer, hepatocellular cancer, and breast cancer, the prevalence of low skeletal muscle mass was <35%. In curative setting, the prevalence of sarcopenia was 39.6% and in palliative setting, it was 49.2% (P< 0.001).

[CONCLUSIONS] Sarcopenia is a frequent condition in oncology with a prevalence of 35.3%. The prevalence of sarcopenia is higher in palliative setting vs curative setting. The prevalence of sarcopenia is also different in different tumors.