ArticleSupportive care in cancer : official journal of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer2025
Does pre-checkpoint inhibitor sarcopenia, visceral, or subcutaneous fat predict survival in non-small cell lung cancer patients?
Article in Supportive care in cancer : official journal of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
10 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundSarcopenia and altered body composition have been associated with poor outcomes in cancer patients. We investigated whether skeletal muscle index (SMI), visceral fat area (VFA), and subcutaneous fat area (SFA) measured on CT scans predict survival in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients receiving immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy.
methodsThis retrospective pilot study analyzed 46 NSCLC patients who had CT scans within 60 days of initiating checkpoint inhibitor therapy (93.5% pembrolizumab, 6.5% nivolumab) at a single tertiary care center. Body composition metrics were measured at the L3 vertebral level using TeraRecon software by a trained reader. Sarcopenia was defined using validated cutoffs (males < 45.4 cm
resultsThe cohort included 25 males (54.3%) and 21 females (45.7%), with median time from CT scan to checkpoint inhibitor initiation of 14 days (IQR: -47 to 18). One-year survival was 72.0% for males and 59.3% for females; two-year survival was 33.7% and 27.3%, respectively. Those who met the clinical criteria for sarcopenia did not statistically differ in survival compared to those who did not meet the clinical cut off (HR 1.21 (95% CI 0.63, 2.43). This finding remained consistent when males and females were examined separately and when the model was adjusted for timing to checkpoint inhibitor.
conclusionIn this small pilot study, pre-treatment body composition metrics did not significantly predict survival in NSCLC patients receiving checkpoint inhibitors. However, the study was likely underpowered with wide confidence intervals, limiting definitive conclusions. These findings provide a methodological framework for larger multicenter studies to validate the prognostic utility of CT-derived body composition in this population.
Indexed as
Identifiers
41417096What Socratic holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.