Sarcopenia describes the loss of skeletal muscle mass. While this condition is associated with a high mortality in cancer patients, its influence on survival is still underestimated.

A systematic review for articles was performed using the PubMed database, Cochrane Library, Biomed Central, Science Direct and by manual search. We used data of overall survival in sarcopenic patients for assessing the death risk. We extracted hazard ratio estimates from univariate and multivariate Cox proportional hazards models for meta-analysis.

A total of 15 studies were eligible for meta-analysis including a total of 2,521 lung cancer patients. Univariate meta-analysis revealed a two-fold increased death risk in sarcopenic patients; multivariate meta-analysis yielded a significant, three-fold elevated risk of death. This higher mortality is independent of tumour stage.

Muscle loss is an independent risk factor for increased death risk in lung cancer patients independent of cancer stage. This argues for implementing screening for sarcopenia into cancer care.