Impact of psoas muscle index assessed by a simple measurement method on tolerability and duration of continued treatment with sorafenib in hepatocellular carcinoma patients

Background In this study, we investigated the impact of simple measurement of psoas muscle index (PMI) on the tolerability of sorafenib treatment of switch from sorafenib to regorafenib. Method This retrospective study enrolled 109 patients with Child–Pugh A hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) treated with sorafenib. Pretreatment PMI was calculated by measuring and multiplying the greatest anterior/posterior and transverse diameters of the psoas muscles on axial computed tomography images at the L3 vertebral level, and normalizing the sum of bilateral psoas muscle areas by the square of the height in meters. We, then, statistically analyzed the association between PMI and adverse events (AEs) to treatment, tolerability of sorafenib, time to treatment failure (TTF), and prognosis in patients stratified according to PMI. Result Patients were divided into high PMI ( n = 41) and low PMI ( n = 68) groups based on the cutoff PMI values (men: 7.04 cm 2 /m 2 ; women: 4.40 cm 2 /m 2 ) determined by receiver operating characteristic curve analysis to determine sorafenib tolerability. Frequencies of all types of severe AEs were higher in the low PMI group (50.0%) than in the high PMI group (29.3%; P = 0.045). The high PMI group (51.2%) had greater tolerance to sorafenib than the low PMI group (25.0%; P = 0.007). Moreover, in multivariable analysis, PMI was associated with sorafenib tolerability (odds ratio 0.26; P = 0.008) and was a prognostic factor affecting TTF (hazard ratio 1.77; P = 0.021). Conclusion PMI might be a predictive marker of tolerance to treatment and TTF in HCC patients receiving sorafenib treatment.