Copyright: ©Author(s) 2026. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license. No commercial re-use. See permissions. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc.
World J Clin Oncol. Jun 24, 2026; 17(6): 120121
Published online Jun 24, 2026. doi: 10.5306/wjco.120121
Published online Jun 24, 2026. doi: 10.5306/wjco.120121
Letter to the Editor: Clinical consequences of body composition disturbances
Matevž Srpčič, Department of Thoracic Surgery, University Medical Centre Ljubljana, Zaloška cesta 2, Ljubljana 1000, Slovenia
Matevž Srpčič, Faculty of Medicine, University of Ljubljana, Vrazov trg 2, Ljubljana 1000, Slovenia
Author contributions: Srpčič M wrote the manuscript and submitted it for publication.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The author reports no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
Corresponding author: Matevž Srpčič, PhD, Assistant Professor, Consultant, Department of Thoracic Surgery, University Medical Centre Ljubljana, Zaloška cesta 2, Ljubljana 1000, Slovenia. matevz.srpcic@kclj.si
Received: February 24, 2026
Revised: April 18, 2026
Accepted: June 1, 2026
Published online: June 24, 2026
Processing time: 127 Days and 13.7 Hours
Revised: April 18, 2026
Accepted: June 1, 2026
Published online: June 24, 2026
Processing time: 127 Days and 13.7 Hours
Core Tip
Core Tip: Body composition analysis is indispensable in modern comprehensive cancer care, especially so in esophageal cancer. Traditional indicators of depletion of body reserves such as weight loss and body mass index remain useful to some extent and in certain populations but direct assessment of muscle mass, muscle quality and adipose tissue mass offers better sensitivity and specificity especially in the normal and overweight body mass index groups.