Sarcopenia is associated with worse surgical complications but not relapse-free survival and overall survival in patients with retroperitoneal liposarcoma

Objective: This investigation aimed to explore the relationship between sarcopenia and severe postoperative complications, relapse-free survival (RFS), and overall survival (OS) in patients with retroperitoneal liposarcoma (RLPS).Material and methods: This retrospective study included 72 RLPS patients (47 men, 25 women; mean age, 57.49 years, SD 10.92) who had abdominal CT exams. Clinical information was recorded, including RLPS characteristics (histologic subtypes, grade, size), laboratory assessment (ALB, PALB, A/G, Hb, SCr), relapse-free survival, overall survival, and postoperative complications. The relationships between those variables and RFS and OS were analyzed using Cox proportional hazard models.Results: There were 8 severe postoperative complications (Clavien-Dindo grade > 2). The chi-square test showed sarcopenia was associated with severe postoperative complications (P = 0.011). In multivariate analysis, sarcopenia was not associated with relapse-free survival (P = 0.574) and overall survival (P = 0.578).Conclusions: Sarcopenia predicts worse surgical complications but does not affect relapse-free survival and overall survival.

Automated summary

This study investigated the relationship between sarcopenia and severe postoperative complications, relapse-free survival, and overall survival in RLPS patients. The results showed that sarcopenia was associated with severe postoperative complications, but had no impact on relapse-free survival and overall survival.