Combination of Sarcopenia and Hypoalbuminemia Is a Poor Prognostic Factor in Surgically Treated Nonmetastatic Renal Cell Carcinoma

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to observe how preoperative sarcopenia and hypoalbuminemia affect the oncological outcome of nonmetastatic renal cell carcinoma (RCC) after partial or radical nephrectomy. Methods: This study retrospectively analyzes 288 Japanese patients with nonmetastatic RCC who underwent radical treatment at Kanazawa University Hospital between October 2007 and December 2018. Relationships between sarcopenia as indicated by the psoas muscle mass index and hypoalbuminemia (albumin ≤ 3.5 g/dL) with overall survival (OS) and metastasis-free survival (MFS) were determined. Results: The study found that 110 (38.2%) of the 288 patients were sarcopenic and 29 (10.1%) had hypoalbuminemia. The combination of sarcopenia and hypoalbuminemia was associated with a shorter OS and MFS (p for trend = 0.0007 and <0.0001, respectively), according to Kaplan–Meier curves. The concurrent presence of sarcopenia and hypoalbuminemia were found to be significant and independent predictors of poor MFS (hazard ratio (HR), 2.96; 95% confidence interval (95% CI), 1.05–8.39; p = 0.041) and poor OS (HR, 6.87; 95% CI, 1.75–26.94; p = 0.006), respectively. Conclusions: In Japanese patients with surgically treated nonmetastatic RCC, combined preoperative sarcopenia and hypoalbuminemia was a significant predictor of poor survival.