Is myopenia sufficient to diagnose Sarcopenia?

Abstract

Dear Editor, We congratulate Chan and colleagues on their significant study, which aimed to identify the optimal cutoff for skeletal muscle index (SMI) in predicting severe chemotherapy-related toxicities and overall survival (OS) in 158 patients diagnosed with metastatic gastric cancer (GC).1 The SMI was assessed at the level of third lumbar vertebra (L3) through computed tomography (CT) scans conducted before the commencement of chemotherapy to evaluate the status of sarcopenia. Thirty patients (19.0%) had low SMI. The multivariable analysis demonstrated that a low SMI was an independent significant predictor of increased hematological (P = .001) and non-hematological (P = .003) toxicity, reduced overall survival (OS) (P = .011), a diminished response rate to chemotherapy (P = .045), and a lower likelihood of utilizing subsequent lines of treatment (P