No influence of sarcopenia on survival of ovarian cancer patients in a prospective validation study
Decrease in skeletal muscle index (SMI) during neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT) has been associated with worse outcome in patients with advanced ovarian cancer. To validate these findings, we tested if a decrease in SMI was a prognostic factor for a homogenous cohort of patients who received NACT in the randomized phase 3 OVHIPEC-trial. CT-scans were performed at baseline and after two cycles of neoadjuvant chemotherapy in stage III ovarian cancer patients. The SMI (skeletal muscle area in cm Paired CT-scans were available for 212 out of 245 patients (87%). Thirty-four of 74 patients (58%) in the group with a decrease in ΔSMI and 73 of 138 of the patients (53%) in the group with stable/increase in ΔSMI had died. Median RFS and OS did not differ significantly (p = 0.297 and p = 0.764) between groups. Patients with a decrease in SMI experienced more pre-operative adverse events, and more grade 3-4 adverse events. Decreased SMI during neoadjuvant chemotherapy was not associated with worse outcome in patients with stage III ovarian cancer included in the OVHIPEC-trial. However, a strong association between decreasing SMI and adverse events was found.