title: Decreased Skeletal Muscle Mass After Neoadjuvant Therapy Correlates with Poor Prognosis in Patients with Esophageal Cancer.
abstract: Loss of skeletal muscle is predictive of a poor prognosis in patients with various malignant lesions. Our aim was to determine whether changes in skeletal muscle after neo-adjuvant therapy (NAT) predict prognosis in patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) undergoing esophagectomy.
  
  
  
  The cross-sectional areas of the psoas muscles were measured on computed tomographic images collected at the initial visit, preoperatively and postoperatively in 84 patients. The psoas muscle index (PMI) was calculated by normalizing the cross-sectional areas to the patients' heights.
  
  
  
  Low PMI at the initial visit was not associated with a poor prognosis. The majority of patients showed decreased PMI after NAT and surgery. The group in which the post-NAT PMI decreased had poorer overall survival than group without PMI decrease (p=0.025).
  
  
  
  Decreased PMI correlates well with a poor prognosis in patients with ESCC. Changes in PMI over a period of time may have greater sensitivity when evaluating prognosis than the PMI at any single time point.
authors.affiliation: Department of General Thoracic Surgery, Akita University Graduate School of Medicine, Akita, Japan liujiajia517@yahoo.co.jp.
authors.forename: Jiajia
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Department of General Thoracic Surgery, Akita University Graduate School of Medicine, Akita, Japan.|Department of Comprehensive Cancer Control, Akita University Graduate School of Medicine, Akita, Japan.
authors.forename: Satoru
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Motoyama
authors.affiliation: Department of General Thoracic Surgery, Akita University Graduate School of Medicine, Akita, Japan.
authors.forename: Yusuke
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Sato
authors.affiliation: Department of General Thoracic Surgery, Akita University Graduate School of Medicine, Akita, Japan.
authors.forename: Akiyuki
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Wakita
authors.affiliation: Department of General Thoracic Surgery, Akita University Graduate School of Medicine, Akita, Japan.
authors.forename: Yuta
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kawakita
authors.affiliation: Department of General Thoracic Surgery, Akita University Graduate School of Medicine, Akita, Japan.
authors.forename: Hajime
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Saito
authors.affiliation: Department of General Thoracic Surgery, Akita University Graduate School of Medicine, Akita, Japan.
authors.forename: Yoshihiro
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Minamiya
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000970:Antineoplastic Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D002294:Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000473:pathology; D004938:Esophageal Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000473:pathology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D018482:Muscle, Skeletal / Q000473:pathology*; D020360:Neoadjuvant Therapy; D011379:Prognosis
chemical_list: D000970:Antineoplastic Agents
keywords: Skeletal muscle; esophageal cancer; neo-adjuvant therapy; prognosis