Perisetti A, Goyal H, Yendala R, Chandan S, Tharian B, Thandassery RB. Sarcopenia in hepatocellular carcinoma: Current knowledge and future directions. World J Gastroenterol 2022; 28(4): 432-448 [PMID: 35125828 DOI: 10.3748/wjg.v28.i4.432]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Abhilash Perisetti, FACP, MBBS, MD, Academic Fellow, Department of Internal Medicine, Gastroenterology and Hepatology Division, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, 4301 W Markham St., Little Rock, AR 72205, United States. abhilash.perisetti@gmail.com
Research Domain of This Article
Gastroenterology & Hepatology
Article-Type of This Article
Review
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Abhilash Perisetti, Benjamin Tharian, Department of Internal Medicine, Gastroenterology and Hepatology Division, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Little Rock, AR 72205, United States
Abhilash Perisetti, Department of Interventional Oncology and Surgical Endoscopy, Parkview Health, Fort Wayne, IN 46825, United States
Hemant Goyal, Department of Internal Medicine, The Wright Center for Graduate Medical Education, The Wright Center for Graduate Medical Education, Scranton, PA 18501, United States
Rachana Yendala, Department of Hematology and Oncology, Conway Regional Medical Center, Conway, AR 72034, United States
Saurabh Chandan, Department of Internal Medicine, Gastroenterology and Hepatology Division, CHI Creighton University Medical Center, Omaha, NE 68107, United States
Ragesh Babu Thandassery, Department of Medicine, Central Arkansas Veterans Healthcare System, Little Rock, AR 72205, United States
Author contributions: Abhilash P and Thandassery R contributed to the conception, design, and literature search; Abhilash P drafted the manuscript; Goyal H performed a thorough literature search and modified the manuscript; Rest of all authors critically revised and edited the manuscript, and approved the final version.
Conflict-of-interest statement: None of the authors have no conflicts of interest.
Corresponding author: Abhilash Perisetti, FACP, MBBS, MD, Academic Fellow, Department of Internal Medicine, Gastroenterology and Hepatology Division, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, 4301 W Markham St., Little Rock, AR 72205, United States. abhilash.perisetti@gmail.com
Received: April 19, 2021 Peer-review started: April 19, 2021 First decision: June 23, 2021 Revised: June 29, 2021 Accepted: January 11, 2022 Article in press: January 11, 2022 Published online: January 28, 2022 Processing time: 278 Days and 2.1 Hours
Core Tip
Core Tip: Sarcopenia is a condition defined by the loss of skeletal muscle mass, quality and strength. It is commonly seen as a part of normal aging but can also be noted in multiple conditions such as chronic inflammation, cancers and use of drugs. Sarcopenia is common in liver cirrhosis and is associated with overall poor outcomes (disease-free survival). Recently, the adverse effects of sarcopenia in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) has been an area of intense interest. Altered bio-impedence and rapid muscle loss in liver diseases could alter skeletal muscle strength in these patients. Additionally, development of tumor-related cytokines can accelerate the sarcopenia progression which could provide insights into disease progression and response to various therapeutic options. While multiple scoring systems are available to evaluate the HCC progression, sarcopenia provides an additional functional status tool to further refine these systems. In this article, we summarize the role of sarcopenia in HCC progression and changes during locoregional and systemic treatments.
