Cachexia Index in Patients with Gastrointestinal Cancer: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

The cachexia index is a novel biomarker of cancer cachexia. This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to evaluate the prognostic impact of cachexia index on prognosis after surgery for gastrointestinal cancer.

In August 2023, we systematically searched PubMed, the Cochrane Library, and Ovid for relevant studies on the oncological outcome after gastrointestinal cancer surgery and analyzed the findings from these studies for meta-analysis.

Our systematic and meta-analysis review identified eight studies involving 1876 patients. The number of patients with low cachexia index accounted for 813 patients (43.3%). We found that low cachexia index was associated with worse overall survival (pooled HR, 2.30; 95% CI, 1.85–2.87; z = 7.49; P < 0.001) and disease/relapse/progression-free survival (pooled HR, 1.77; 95% CI, 1.45–2.18; z = 5.50; P < 0.001).

Our meta-analysis showed that cachexia index was associated with oncological outcome after gastrointestinal cancer surgery. However, the limitations of this meta-analysis should be taken into consideration when interpreting the results.