Impact of Sarcopenia on Survival of Patients With Malignant Salivary Glands Tumors

Objective: Malignant salivary glands tumors (MSGTs) are a quite rare and heterogeneous group of tumors. Management of these lesions remains controversial and challenging. Thus, finding new prognostic factors that can help to guide the decision-making process, appears to be paramount. The aim of this study was to evaluate the prognostic performance of preoperative sarcopenia to stratify MSGTs patients at high risk of disease progression. Study Design: Retrospective study. Setting: A single-institution analysis (Maxillo-facial Surgery Unit, University of Naples Federico II). Methods: The study consists of a retrospective analysis of 74 patients surgically treated for MSGTs. For all patients, the skeletal muscle index (SMI) was calculated and sarcopenia was defined as SMI < 41 in females and <43 in males. The correlation between sarcopenia and tumor variables was analyzed. The prognostic performance of sarcopenia was evaluated through survival Kaplan-Meier curves. Results: Sarcopenia resulted statistically related to age (P <.001), tumor size (P <.001), lymph node metastases (P <.001), and American Joint Committee on Cancer tumor, node, metastasis stage (P <.001). Kaplan-Meier survival curves show that 47.3% of sarcopenic patients died before their final follow-up. Conclusion: Data obtained from our study seem to confirm the correlation between sarcopenia and other high-risk features. The early detection of sarcopenia in patients with negative prognostic factors could be used to implement the support therapeutic strategies aimed at restore the clinical conditions of the patients. Sarcopenia may be routinely investigated before surgery to suggest the implementation of precautionary therapeutic strategies to improve the standard treatment response, reducing possible complications.