Sarcopenia is the loss of skeletal muscle volume or quality, a concept previously established in age-related frailty. Sarcopenia is part of the cancer cachexia syndrome and has therefore been explored as biomarker through the opportunistic measurement of skeletal muscle from routine cancer imaging. However, there is inconsistency in diagnostic landmarks and cut-offs. The most common assessment method is skeletal muscle area at the slice level of the third lumbar vertebrae divided by height squared. Alternative sarcopenia measures have been derived from morphological descriptions of the psoas, thoracic and cervical muscles, driven by tumour-specific anatomical imaging.
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