AWGS2019 vs EWGSOP2 for diagnosing sarcopenia to predict long-term prognosis in Chinese patients with gastric cancer after radical gastrectomy

BACKGROUND: Sarcopenia is a nutrition-related disease and has a profound effect on the long-term overall survival (OS) of patients with gastric cancer. Its diagnostic criterion is critical to clinical diagnosis and treatment. However, previous research reported widely differing sarcopenia prevalence due to different criteria. AWGS2019 and EWGSOP2 are the two latest and widely adopted criteria. AIM: To compare the effects of AWGS2019 and EWGSOP2 on the long-term OS of Chinese gastric cancer patient after radical gastrectomy. METHODS: An observational study was conducted from July 2014 to January 2017, which included 648 consecutive gastric cancer patients who underwent radical gastrectomy. The sarcopenia elements (skeletal muscle index, handgrip strength, and gait speed) were measured within 1 mo or 7 d before surgery. The patients were followed at fixed intervals to gain the outcomes. Multivariate Cox regression analysis was performed to determine the association between sarcopenia and the long-term OS of these patients according to the two criteria separately. The predictive performance of the models with AWGS2019 and EWGSOP2 were evaluated by the concordance index (C-index) and area under the time-dependent receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC). The Akaike information criterion (AIC) was applied to compare model fits. RESULTS: The prevalence of sarcopenia was 20.5% and 11.3% according to AWGS2019 and EWGSOP2, respectively. Sarcopenia was an independent risk factor for the long-term OS no matter based on AWGS2019 or EWGSOP2, but AWGS2019-sarcopenia in multivariate model had a higher hazard ratio (HR) [2.150 (1.547-2.988)] than EWGSOP2-sarcopenia [HR 1.599 (1.092-2.339)]. Meanwhile, the model with AWGS2019-sarcopenia [C-index 0.773 (0.742-0.804); AIC 2193.7; time-dependent AUC 0.812 (0.756-0.867) for 1-year OS, 0.815 (0.778-0.852) for 3-year OS, and 0.809 (0.759-0.859) for 5-year OS] had better predictive power and model fits than the model with EWGSOP2-sarcopenia [C-index 0.762 (0.729-0.795); AIC 2215.2; time-dependent AUC 0.797 (0.741-0.854) for 1-year OS, 0.804 (0.767-0.842) for 3-year OS, and 0.799 (0.748-0.850) for 5-year OS]. CONCLUSION: Sarcopenia is an independent risk factor for the long-term OS in Chinese gastric cancer patients undergoing radical gastrectomy. The prediction model with AWGS2019-sarcopenia has better predictive power and model fits than the prediction model with EWGSOP2-sarcopenia. AWGS2019 may be more appropriate for diagnosing sarcopenia in these Chinese patients than EWGSOP2.