Preoperative Cachexia predicts poor outcomes in young rather than elderly gastric cancer patients: a prospective study

Xiaodong Chen,1,* Yunpeng Zeng,1,* Yunshi Huang,2 Jingxuan Xu,1 Weiyang Meng,3 Xiang Wang,1 Ce Zhu,2 Guanbao Zhu,2 Chenchen Mao,1 Xian Shen1,21Department of Gastrointestinal Surgery, The Second Affiliated Hospital, Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, Zhejiang, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Gastrointestinal Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital, Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, Zhejiang, People’s Republic of China; 3Department of Emergency Medical, The Second Affiliated Hospital, Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, Zhejiang, People’s Republic of ChinaCorrespondence: Chenchen Mao; Xian ShenDepartment of Gastrointestinal Surgery, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University, No. 109 West College Road, Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province, People’s Republic of ChinaTel +86 05 778 800 2709Email 578117567@qq.com; shenxian5166@gmail.com*These authors contributed equally to this workBackground: Cachexia affects nearly 50–80% of cancer patients, and most studies have only focused on elderly patients. We investigated preoperative cachexia in gastric cancer (GC) patients by age group and comprehensively analyzed the impact of preoperative cachexia on the prognosis of GC patients in all age groups.Methods: In total, 575 patients were prospectively analyzed. The effect of preoperative cachexia on overall survival (OS) in all the patients and in patients with different age groups were investigated using log-rank test and Cox proportional hazards regression, respectively.Results: In total, 35.8% (206 of 575) individuals were diagnosed with cachexia. The median survival of cachexia patients (29.2 months) was shorter than that of non-cachexia patients (35.7 months). Cachexia (HR =1.976, P