Imaging all the people : Associations of computed tomography-based body composition with mortality and fatigue in stage I-III colorectal cancer patients

Abstract

Low skeletal muscle mass, often assessed by means of the skeletal muscle index (SMI, skeletal muscle cross-sectional surface area divided by height squared in meters), can be caused by various factors like: ageing, prolonged bed rest or a sedentary lifestyle, chronic diseases and certain drug treatments (40). In 2015, when this PhD project started, several papers had been published on the relationship between low SMI and mortality in cancer patients. Several (4, 5, 7, 8, 10, 21), but not all (6, 9) studies found a statistically significant association of low SMI with increased mortality risk (range of hazard ratios [HRs]: 1.15-Low radiographic muscle density is associated with lower overall and disease-specific survival in early-stage colorectal cancer patients