RESUMO
Background: Hematological cancer patients are prone to the development of sarcopenia and impaired nutritional and functional status. SARC-CalF is a screening tool for the risk of sarcopenia that has shown good results in this population. This study aimed to identify the risk of sarcopenia by SARC-CalF and to verify its association with nutritional status and Hand Grip Strength (HGS) in patients with hematological cancer. Materials and Methods: Adult patients, of both sexes, with hematological cancer, and in outpatient care participated in the study. We measured the Hand Grip Strength of the Dominant Hand (HGSD) and the Adductor Pollicis Muscle Thickness of the Dominant Hand (APMTD). Moreover, we applied the Patient-Generated Subjective Global Assessment (PG-SGA) and SARC-CalF. Data were analyzed with SPSS® software, 22.0, with a significance level of 5.0%. Results: Fifty-one patients aged an average of 60.4 ± 15.1 years were evaluated. Of those, 58.8% were elderly, 51% female, and 80.4% declared themselves non-white. The predominant diagnosis was Mature B Lymphoid Cell Neoplasia (37.7%), and 60.8% of the patients had a diagnosis time of ≤ 3 years. PG-SGA revealed that 35.3% of the patients were malnourished; APMTD and HGSD revealed that 60.8% and 25.5% had reduced muscle strength, respectively. SARC-CalF exposed that 39.2% of the patients were at risk for sarcopenia. Significant associations were found between SARC-CalF and diagnosis time ≤ 3 years (p = 0.039), PG-SGA (p = 0.020), APMTD (p = 0.039) and HGSD (p = 0.002). After binary logistic regression adjusted for age and sex, the reduced HGSD remained associated with the risk of sarcopenia. Conclusion: SARC-CalF identified a risk of sarcopenia in 39.2% of patients. The reduced HGSD was associated with the risk of sarcopenia.
RESUMO
BACKGROUND: Women with breast cancer are at risk for the development of sarcopenia and occurrence of fractures. The initial and periodic screening of these conditions can prevent the risks of disability, poor quality of life, and death. The present study investigated the association between sarcopenia phenotypes and fracture risk, assessed by the Fracture Risk Assessment Tool (FRAX) in women with breast cancer. METHODS: Cross-sectional study. It included women aged between 40 and 80 years, diagnosed with Luminal subtype breast cancer, with time of diagnosis ≤ 12 months, who had not started endocrine therapy, did not have metastasis, had not been treated for another malignancy, and had no recurrences. Sociodemographic, habits and lifestyle, clinical, anthropometric, and body composition variables were considered. Muscle strength, skeletal muscle mass, and physical performance were investigated using handgrip strength (HGS), appendicular skeletal muscle mass index (ASMI), and Timed Up and Go test (TUGT), respectively. Fracture risk was assessed using FRAX. Multiple linear regression models were conducted to verify the association between exposure variables and sarcopenia phenotypes. A significance level of p < 0.05 was adopted for all tests using the SPPS 25.0 program. RESULTS: Sixty-two women with a mean age of 58.1 ± 10.4 years were evaluated. Of these, 66.1% self-declared to be non-white, 41.9% and 71.0% did not consume alcohol or smoke, respectively, and 61.3% were insufficiently active. A total of 45.2% had clinical stage II carcinoma and 65.5% had the invasive breast carcinoma histological subtype. There was a predominance of adequacy of HGS (88.7%), ASMI (94.5%), and TUGT (96.8%), as well as low risk of hip fractures (85.5%) and major fractures (82.3%). HGS remained associated with FRAX hip fractures (p = 0.007) and FRAX major fractures (p = 0.007) in the adjusted models, while ASMI was associated with body mass (p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Low muscle strength was the sarcopenia phenotype that remained associated with fracture risk in women with breast cancer, independently of sociodemographic factors, level of physical activity, and clinical factors. In addition to the assessment of probable sarcopenia, this measurement may point out the risk of fractures.