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Skeletal muscle loss and prognosis of breast cancer patients

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Abstract

Purpose

The aim of this study was to clarify the changes in the cross-sectional area of skeletal muscle and muscle attenuation (MA) during 12-month period before death in breast cancer patients.

Methods

Breast cancer patients who received treatment between September 2002 and July 2014 at Shizuoka Cancer Center or between December 2005 and July 2014 at Teikyo University Hospital were identified. Computed tomography (CT) scans during the 12-month period before death of consecutive female patients who died of breast cancer were reviewed. Skeletal muscle quantity and quality were evaluated by a cross-sectional area of skeletal muscle and MA, respectively, on CT scans taken 10–12 months (T1), 7–9 months (T2), 4–6 months (T3), and within 3 months (T4) prior to death. Wilcoxon signed rank test was used to compare the differences between the two-time points with Bonferroni correction (p = 0.0083).

Results

The medical records of 99 patients (median age at death, 57 years; range, 40–83 years) were retrospectively analyzed. Both the cross-sectional area and MA continued to decrease during 12-month period before death. Statistically significant differences were observed in the cross-sectional areas between T1 and T4 (p = 0.0011), T2 and T4 (p = 0.0019), and T3 and T4 (p = 0.0026), as well as in MA between T2 and T4 (p = 0.0012) and T3 and T4 (p = 0.0061).

Conclusions

These results suggest that both quantity and quality of the skeletal muscle continued to decrease during 12-month period before death in breast cancer patients.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Dr. Hisao Imai (Department of Respiratory Medicine, Gunma Prefectural Cancer Center), Dr. Norihiko Seki (Department of Medical Oncology, Teikyo University School of Medicine), and Dr. Satoshi Ohno, (Teikyo Academic Research Center, Teikyo University) for constructive advice regarding this study. We wish to thank Dr. Tomonori Kanda (Department of Radiology, Teikyo University School of Medicine), for technical assistance, and Dr. Kaoru Takahashi and Dr. Seiichiro Nishimura (Department of Breast Surgery, Shizuoka Cancer Center), for patient information. We greatly appreciate Dr. Tadashi Ikeda (Department of Surgery, Teikyo University School of Medicine), for the encyclopedia of breast cancer. We are particularly thankful to Dr. Kenji Eguchi (Health Science on Supportive Medicine for Intractable Disease, Teikyo University School of Medicine) for providing expertise and helping to prepare this manuscript. This study was funded by the Promotion Plan for the Platform of Human Resource Development for Cancer. The authors would like to thank Enago ( www.enago.jp) for the English language review.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Palliative Medicine, Teikyo University School of Medicine, 2-11-1, Kaga, Itabashi-ku, Tokyo, 173-8605, Japan

    Yoshiko Kubo, Gakuji Osawa & Etsuko Aruga

  2. Department of Breast Surgery, Shizuoka Cancer Center, 1007, Shimonagakubo, Nagaizumi-cho, Sunto-gun, Shizuoka, 411-8777, Japan

    Yoshiko Kubo

  3. Division of Thoracic Oncology, Shizuoka Cancer Center, 1007, Shimonagakubo, Nagaizumi-cho, Sunto-gun, Shizuoka, 411-8777, Japan

    Tateaki Naito

  4. Clinical Research Center, Shizuoka Cancer Center, 1007, Shimonagakubo, Nagaizumi-cho, Sunto-gun, Shizuoka, 411-8777, Japan

    Keita Mori

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  1. Yoshiko Kubo
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  2. Tateaki Naito
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  3. Keita Mori
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  4. Gakuji Osawa
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  5. Etsuko Aruga
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Correspondence to Yoshiko Kubo.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical standards

All procedures involving human participants were performed in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. For this type of study, formal consent is not required.

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Kubo, Y., Naito, T., Mori, K. et al. Skeletal muscle loss and prognosis of breast cancer patients. Support Care Cancer 25, 2221–2227 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-017-3628-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-017-3628-5

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