• Li Yang, Xianghui Liao, Zhong Xie, and Haiwen Li.
• Department of Digestive Oncology, Affiliated Hospital of Guangdong Medical University, Zhanjiang, P.R. China.
• Medicine (Baltimore). 2023 May 12; 102 (19): e33663e33663.

BackgroundThe association between pretreatment skeletal muscle index (SMI) and long-term survival of pancreatic carcinoma patients remains unclear up to now.MethodsThe PubMed, Web of Science and EMBASE databases were searched up to March 1, 2022 for relevant studies. The primary and secondary outcomes were overall survival and progression-free survival, respectively. The hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were combined to assess the relationship between pretreatment SMI and prognosis of pancreatic carcinoma patients. All statistical analysis was conducted by STATA 15.0 software.ResultsTwenty retrospective studies involving 3765 patients were included. The pooled results demonstrated that lower pretreatment SMI was significantly related to poorer overall survival (HR = 1.42, 95% CI: 1.25-1.62, P < .001) and progression-free survival (HR = 1.41, 95% CI: 1.08-1.84, P = .012). Besides subgroup analysis based on the treatment (non-surgery vs surgery) and tumor stage (advanced vs early stage) showed similar results.ConclusionPretreatment SMI could serve as a promising and reliable prognostic factor for pancreatic carcinoma patients and lower pretreatment SMI predicted worse prognosis.Copyright © 2023 the Author(s). Published by Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc.

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