Combination of sarcopenia and systemic inflammation-based markers for predicting the prognosis of patients undergoing pancreaticoduodenectomy for pancreatic cancer

Background This study aimed to evaluate the effects of sarcopenia and inflammation on the prognosis of patients with pancreatic cancer after pancreaticoduodenectomy. Methods Eighty patients who had undergone pancreaticoduodenectomy for pancreatic cancer between July 2010 and December 2023 were included in this study. The psoas muscle index was used to assess sarcopenia. The C-reactive protein-to-albumin ratio, prognostic nutritional index, neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio, and platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio were used to calculate the preoperative inflammatory marker levels. The prognostic factors for overall survival were determined using Cox regression analysis. Results Twenty-four patients were diagnosed with sarcopenia. Sarcopenia showed a significant association with advanced tumor stage. Univariate analysis revealed a significant reduction in overall survival in patients with a prognostic nutritional index of <45, C-reactive protein-to-albumin ratio of ≥0.047, cancer antigen 19–9 levels of ≥130 U/mL, sarcopenia, lymph node metastasis, and vascular invasion. Multivariate analysis revealed that a C-reactive protein-to-albumin ratio of ≥0.047 (hazards ratio, 3.383; 95% confidence interval: 1.384–8.689; p < 0.001), cancer antigen 19–9 levels of ≥130 U/mL (hazards ratio, 2.720; 95% confidence interval: 1.291–6.060; p = 0.008), sarcopenia (hazards ratio, 3.256; 95% confidence interval: 1.535–7.072; p = 0.002) and vascular invasion (hazards ratio, 2.092; 95% confidence interval: 1.057–4.170; p = 0.034) were independent predictors of overall survival. Overall survival in the sarcopenia and high C-reactive protein-to-albumin ratio groups was significantly poorer than that in the non-sarcopenia and low C-reactive protein-to-albumin ratio and sarcopenia or high C-reactive protein-to-albumin ratio groups. Conclusion Sarcopenia and a high C-reactive protein-to-albumin ratio are independent prognostic factors in patients with pancreatic cancer after pancreaticoduodenectomy. Thus, sarcopenia may have a better prognostic value when combined with the C-reactive protein-to-albumin ratio.