A low psoas muscle volume is associated with a poor prognosis in penile cancer

Abstract

Background: Sarcopenia was initially recognized as a marker representing the nutritional condition or aging. Recently, sarcopenia has been associated with a poor prognosis and postoperative complications. We examined the importance of sarcopenia as a predictive marker of the prognosis in penile cancer. Materials and Methods: A total of 25 patients diagnosed with penile cancer who underwent penile resection from 2000 to 2010 were analyzed in this study. The psoas muscle index (PMI) was calculated based on psoas area using preoperative axial computed tomography images at the right L3 level divided by the square of the body height. Results: Nineteen (76.0%) patients underwent partial penectomy, and 6 (24.0%) underwent total penectomy. The median (mean ± standard deviation) age was 69.3 (69.0 ± 10.1) years old. Regarding the site of penile cancer, 17 (76.0%) cases were in the glans, 6 (24.0%) were in the foreskin, and 2 (8.0%) were in the shaft. Lymph node metastasis were seen in 6 cases (24.0%), and distant metastasis was seen in 1 case (4.0%). The lower PMI group (< 320.0) showed a significantly poorer progression-free survival than the higher PMI group (≥ 320.0) (p = 0.030), although no significant difference in the overall survival was noted (p = 0.076). Conclusions: Sarcopenia might be a useful prognostic factor in penile cancer patients.

Use of an Open-Source Software to Examine Low Skeletal Muscle Mass in Penile Cancer Patients: A Cross-Sectional Study

“…Thus, penile cancer patients represent a population of men with a high comorbid disease burden by virtue of the modifiable patient related factors and such as cigarette smoking and obesity, where the latter is commonly associated with a sedentary lifestyle, that increase the risk of developing of penile cancer (11)(12)(13). However, due to the rarity of penile cancer there have been limited studies evaluating the association between low SMM, comorbid disease burden, oncologic and surgical outcomes in this patient population (14)(15)(16). We believe the rarity of this cancer type and the given high comorbid disease burden of these men warrants further investigation into the prevalence of low SMM among these patients and its correlation with indices of comorbidity.…”