Muscle mass and attenuation in patients with advanced cancer: the association and change with activity and systemic anti-cancer treatment
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Embargo End Date
2025-07-30
ICR Authors
Authors
Curtis, O
Document Type
Thesis or Dissertation
Date
2025-01-30
Date Accepted
Abstract
Activity and performance status are an important part of the assessment of patients with cancer, but current methods are limited as they are subjective and can only be performed at clinic review. Similarly, sarcopenia is recognised as being associated with poorer outcomes and its inclusion may improve fitness assessments but is not routinely considered in patients receiving systemic anti-cancer treatment (SACT).
This study proposes that activity levels and skeletal muscle parameters change significantly during SACT and may offer an additional way to assess prognosis and fitness for treatment.
The project aims to determine if the longitudinal pattern of change in muscle parameters through SACT and if reduced activity levels can feasibly be used as a trigger for clinical assessment. Alongside this, the project aims to assess the association between muscle mass and attenuation, and activity levels and determine if treatment choices impact the change in muscle mass and attenuation. As exploratory endpoints, the study aims to begin to assess if therapy interventions, including physiotherapy and dietary supplementation, impact the change in muscle parameters during treatment. It will also assess the acceptability of remote monitoring and virtual consultation to reduce hospital attendance.
The project is divided into three arms to investigate these endpoints. These have different recruitment strategies and study designs so will be discussed separately:
• Muscle parameter assessment: retrospective analysis of routine CT scans in lung cancer patients who have completed treatment.
• Activity assessment: prospective monitoring of step counts in patients with lung cancer, mesothelioma and gastrointestinal cancer currently receiving SACT.
• Remote monitoring assessment: qualitative assessment of staff opinions of virtual consultations and WATTOX participant opinions of remote step count monitoring
Citation
2025
DOI
Source Title
Publisher
Institute of Cancer Research (University Of London)
ISSN
eISSN
Collections
Research Team
Thoracic Oncology