Background: Skeletal muscle indices have been associated with improved peri-operative outcomes after surgical resection of non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). However, it is unclear if these indices can predict long term cancer specific outcomes. Methods: NSCLC patients undergoing lobectomy at our institute between 2009–2015 were included in this analysis (N = 492). Preoperative CT scans were used to quantify skeletal muscle index (SMI) at L4 using sliceOmatic software. Cox proportional modelling was performed for overall (OS) and recurrence free survival (RFS). Results: For all patients, median SMI was 45.7 cm²/m² (IQR, 40–53.8). SMI was negatively associated with age (R = -0.2; p < 0.05) and positively associated with BMI (R = 0.46; P < 0.05). No association with either OS or RFS was seen with univariate cox modelling. However, multivariable modelling for SMI with patient age, gender, race, smoking status, DLCO and FEV₁ (% predicted), American Society of Anesthesiology (ASA) score, tumor histology and stage, and postoperative neoadjuvant therapy showed improved OS (HR = 0.97; P = 0.0005) and RFS (HR = 0.97; P = 0.01) with SMI. Using sex specific median SMI as cutoff, a lower SMI was associated with poor OS (HR = 1.65, P = 0.001) and RFS (HR = 1.47, P = 0.03). Conclusions: SMI is associated with improved outcomes after resection of NSCLC. Further studies are needed to understand the biological basis of this observation. This study provides additional rationale for designing and implementation of rehabilitation trials after surgical resection, to gain durable oncologic benefit.

While obesity measured by body mass index (BMI) has been paradoxically associated with reduced risk and better outcome for lung cancer, recent studies suggest that the harm of obesity becomes apparent when measured as visceral adiposity. However, the prevalence of visceral obesity and its associations with demographic and tumor features are not established. We therefore conducted an observational study of visceral obesity in 994 non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients treated during 2008–2020 at our institution. Routine computerized tomography (CT) images of the patients, obtained within a year of tumor resection or biopsy, were used to measure cross-sectional abdominal fat areas. Important aspects of the measurement approach such as inter-observer variability and time stability were examined. Visceral obesity was semi-quantified as visceral fat index (VFI), the fraction of fat area that was visceral. VFI was found to be higher in males compared to females, and in former compared to current or never smokers. There was no association of VFI with tumor histology or stage. A gene expression-based measure of tumor immunogenicity was negatively associated with VFI but had no bearing with BMI. Visceral obesity is appraisable in routine CT and can be an important correlate in lung cancer studies.

Background: Our previous research on neuroendocrine and gastric cancers has shown that patients living in rural areas have worse outcomes than urban patients. This study aimed to investigate the geographic and sociodemographic disparities in esophageal cancer patients. Methods: We conducted a retrospective study on esophageal cancer patients between 1975 and 2016 using the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results database. Both univariate and multivariable analyses were performed to evaluate overall survival (OS) and disease-specific survival (DSS) between patients residing in rural (RA) and urban (MA) areas. Further, we used the National Cancer Database to understand differences in various quality of care metrics based on residence. Results: N = 49,421 (RA [12%]; MA [88%]). The incidence and mortality rates were consistently higher during the study period in RA. Patients living in RA were more commonly males (p < 0.001), Caucasian (p < 0.001), and had adenocarcinoma (p < 0.001). Multivariable analysis showed that RA had worse OS (HR = 1.08; p < 0.01) and DSS (HR = 1.07; p < 0.01). Quality of care was similar, except RA patients were more likely to be treated at a community hospital (p < 0.001). Conclusions: Our study identified geographic disparities in esophageal cancer incidence and outcomes despite the similar quality of care. Future research is needed to understand and attenuate such disparities.