Impact of sarcopenia on post-operative outcomes following nephrectomy and tumor thrombectomy for renal cell carcinoma with inferior vena cava thrombus

Objective Sarcopenia is associated with oncological outcomes in various types of cancer. However, the impact of sarcopenia in renal cell carcinoma with inferior vena cava thrombus remains unclear. We herein evaluated the prognostic significance of sarcopenia for renal cell carcinoma with inferior vena cava thrombus following nephrectomy and thrombectomy. Methods Patients who underwent nephrectomy and thrombectomy for renal cell carcinoma with inferior vena cava thrombus at our department between 2004 and 2019 were retrospectively evaluated. Their sarcopenic status, determined by sex, body mass index and skeletal muscle index, was calculated using pre-surgical radiographic imaging. We compared the post-operative cancer-specific survival and overall survival, surgical data and duration of post-operative hospitalization of sarcopenic and non-sarcopenic patients. Results Out of 83 patients, 54 (65%) were sarcopenic. Sarcopenic patients had significantly shorter cancer-specific survival (median: 33.3 months vs. not reached, P = 0.0323) and overall survival (32.0 months vs. not reached, P = 0.0173) than non-sarcopenic patients. Furthermore, multivariate analyses showed that sarcopenia was an independent factor for cancer-specific survival (hazard ratio: 2.76, P = 0.0212) and overall survival (hazard ratio: 2.93, P = 0.014). The incidence rate of surgical complications (any grade: 35.2% vs. 27.6%, P = 0.482; grades ≥ 3: 7.4% vs. 10.3%, P = 0.648) or duration of post-operative hospitalization (median: 11 vs. 10 days, P = 0.148) was not significantly different between sarcopenic and non-sarcopenic patients. Conclusions In conclusion, this study showed that sarcopenia was an independent prognostic factor for renal cell carcinoma with inferior vena cava thrombus after nephrectomy and tumor thrombectomy. Thus, sarcopenia evaluation can be utilized as an effective prognosticator of post-operative survival.