Mixed
Sarcopenia (low skeletal muscle mass) is a strong, independent predictor of increased overall and colorectal cancer-specific mortality in early-stage colorectal cancer patients, regardless of BMI.
If you have colorectal cancer, ask your medical team to assess your muscle mass using your CT scans. Maintaining muscle mass (avoiding sarcopenia) is critical for survival, even more so than your total body weight or BMI. Focus on preserving muscle through appropriate nutrition and activity as tolerated, rather than just tracking the scale.
Sarcopenic patients had a 27% [HR, 1.27; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.09–1.48] higher risk of overall mortality than those who were not sarcopenic.
Why this rating
Large retrospective cohort (n=3,262), objective CT-based body composition measures, adjusted for multiple confounders.
Source
Explaining the Obesity Paradox: The Association between Body Composition and Colorectal Cancer Survival (C-SCANS Study)
Bette J. Caan et al. · Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers & Prevention · 2017
DOI 10.1158/1055-9965.epi-17-0200
Related findings · Mixed
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