Prognostic significance of sarcopenia in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma treated with lenvatinib: A retrospective analysis

Our study investigated the correlation between sarcopenia and clinical outcomes in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) treated with lenvatinib. We retrospectively evaluated 40 consecutive patients with unresectable HCC receiving lenvatinib between November 2018 and May 2020 at the First Hospital of Jilin University. Skeletal muscle mass was measured before treatment initiation. Prognostic significance was assessed with univariate and multivariate Cox proportional hazards models. Overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) were evaluated for patients with and without sarcopenia. Sarcopenia was present in 23/40 patients (57.5%). After a median follow-up of 9.2 months, patients with sarcopenia had significantly worse OS and PFS compared with those without sarcopenia (OS: 8.4 months [m] vs 14.7 m, P = .02; PFS: 4.2 m vs 9.0 m, P = .04). Multivariate Cox proportional hazards models identified presence of sarcopenia as an independent risk factor for shorter OS (hazard ratio [HR], 0.257; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.083–0.794; P = .02). In subgroup analysis, sarcopenia was associated with worse survival than non-sarcopenic patients, irrespective of age, Barcelona clinic liver cancer stage, or albumin–bilirubin grade. Our results show sarcopenia may be a predictor of poor prognosis in patients with HCC receiving lenvatinib. Management of sarcopenia is a vital factor for improving survival outcomes in patients with HCC.