CT‐determined low skeletal muscle mass predicts worse overall survival of gastric cancer in patients with cachexia

Abstract Background There were controversies for the association between computed tomography (CT)‐determined low skeletal muscle mass (SMM) and overall survival (OS) in gastric cancer (GC). In this study, we investigated whether cachexia could be a potential confounding variable for this issue. Methods We retrospectively collected the patients of GC in our institution between July 2016 and January 2021. Preoperative SMM was determined by analyzing the skeletal muscle index of L3 with abdominal CT, and the cut‐offs for low SMM were defined as