Table 2 Association between sarcopenia or sarcopenic obesity (SO) and oncological surgery outcomes

Prado (Prado et al. 2008)

Respiratory or GI tract

–

Unclear, but associated with poorer functional status than in non-sarcopenic obese

Yes, independently predicted median survival

Yes, independently predicted survival

Lieffers (Lieffers et al. 2012)

Colorectal (stages II–IV)

Yes, independently predicted post-operative infection risk, longer inpatient rehabilitation, associated with higher risk of obstruction, longer index hospitalization length of stay, longer mean length of stay overall

–

–

–

Sabel (Sabel et al. 2013)

Colon

Yes, independently predicted surgical complications and infectious complications, associated with infectious post-operative complications

Unclear, but SFD is the best predictor of post-operative wound infections, and associated with infectious complications

No, not an independent predictor of disease-free or overall survival

Unclear, but TBF independently predicted disease-free survival

Miyamoto (Miyamoto et al. 2015)

Colorectal (stages I–III)

–

–

Yes, independently associated with disease recurrence rate, overall mortality, cancer-specific mortality, recurrence-free survival, overall survival, cancer-specific survival

–

van Vledder (van Vledder et al. 2012)

Colorectal liver metastases

–

–

Yes, independently predicted disease-free survival and overall survival

–

Dello (Dello et al. 2013)

Colorectal liver metastases

Yes, independently predicted disproportionally small total functional liver volume

Unclear, but fat-free body mass and body surface area independently predicted disproportionally small total function liver volume

–

–

Peng (Peng et al. 2011)

Colorectal liver metastases

Yes, independently predicted major post-operative complications, associated with risk of post-operative complications, overall morbidity risk, longer hospital stays, extended ICU stays

Yes, associated with major post-operative complications, longer hospital stays, extended ICU stays

No, not associated with recurrence-free survival, overall survival or risk of recurrence

No, not associated with overall survival or recurrence-free survival

Lodewick (Lodewick et al. 2015)

Colorectal liver metastases

No, not significantly associated with risk of major post-operative complications, presence of liver surgery-specific composite endpoint^a (LSSCEP) items

No, not significantly associated with risk of major post-operative complications, occurrence of one or more of the LSSCEP items

No, not significantly associated with initial hospital length of stay, readmission rates, median disease-free survival, or overall survival

Yes, not predictive of initial hospital length of stay, disease-free survival, or overall survival, but significantly associated with readmission rates

Harimoto (Harimoto et al. 2013)

Liver

Yes, independent predictor of liver dysfunction

–

Yes, independent predictor of overall and recurrence-free survival

–

Voron (Voron et al. 2015)

Liver

No, not associated with severe post-operative complication rate, post-operative mortality or morbidity rates

–

Yes, independently associated with overall and disease-free survival

–

Levolger (Levolger et al. 2015)

Liver

Yes, associated with major post-operative complication (Clavien-Dindo grade ≥IIIa) and treatment-related mortality (within 90 days post-treatment)

–

Yes, associated with overall survival, but not associated with disease-free survival

Yes, associated with shorter median survival

Peng (Peng et al. 2012)

Pancreatic

No, not associated with overall morbidity, major post-operative complications, length of hospital stays, length of ICU stays, or hazard of 90-day death

–

Yes, independent predictor of 3-year mortality

–

Amini (Amini et al. 2015)

Pancreatic

Yes, TPA-sarcopenia not associated with morbidity, but TPV-sarcopenia associated with post-operative complications, major complications, and length of hospital stay. TPV-sarcopenia also independently associated with post-operative complications

Yes, TPV-SO associated with post-operative complications

Yes, TPV-sarcopenia associated with risk of death, and independently associated with risk of death

–

Joglekar (Joglekar et al. 2015)

Pancreatic

Yes, HUAC independently predicted length of stay, ICU stay, major grade III post-operative complications, incidence of any complications. TPA independently predicted length of stay

–

No, HUAC did not predict post-operative overall survival

–