Evaluation of Parameters for Cancer-Induced Sarcopenia in Patients Autopsied after Death from Colorectal Cancer

Cachexia frequently occurs in cancer patients and is correlated with reduced therapeutic responsiveness and poor prognosis. Although skeletal muscle atrophy is an important factor related to cachexia, biomarkers for its early diagnosis are not yet definitive. In this study, weight loss, body mass index, skeletal muscle index (SMI), serum carcinoembryonic antigen, serum tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha, serum interleukin (IL)-6, serum high mobility group box (HMGB)-1, and SDS-soluble myosin light chain 1 (SDS-MYL1) of the psoas muscle were examined in 8 autopsied cases of death from colorectal cancer (CRC) as biomarkers of cachexia. SDS-MYL1 was positively correlated to SMI and TNF-alpha was negatively correlated, but the other factors did not show any correlations with SMI. Multivariate analysis showed that of the 3 cytokines, TNF-alpha and HMGB1 were correlated with SMI. Furthermore, when the biochemical skeletal muscle maturation marker, SDS-MYL1, was compared with serum cytokines, TNF-alpha and HMGB1 were negatively correlated but IL-6 was not. In multivariate analysis, only TNF-alpha was associated with SDS-MYL1. A positive correlation was found between TNF-alpha and HMGB1. These findings suggest that since TNF-alpha was inversely correlated with SMI and SDS-MYL1, TNF-alpha is a serum marker of skeletal muscle atrophy in CRC. Moreover, SDS-MYL1 might be established as a biomarker linked to clinical sarcopenia in experiments in vitro and in vivo.