The study was published on researchsquare.com as a preprint and has not yet been peer reviewed.
Key Takeaway
Having sarcopenia almost doubles the risk that women with hormone receptor (HR)–positive breast cancer will stop receiving endocrine therapy early owing to side effects.
Why This Matters
It is known that sarcopenia is associated with a reduction in chemotherapy adherence and is predictive of worse survival among patients with early-stage and metastatic breast cancer, but its impact on endocrine therapy has not been well studied.
This study suggests that improving or reversing sarcopenia beforehand with, for instance, a supervised exercise program could reduce side effects and increase adherence to endocrine therapy.
Study Design
The team assessed the relationship between sarcopenia and side effects from endocrine therapy in a cohort of 482 women with stage I–III breast cancer.
Women with a skeletal muscle index below 6.75 kg/m2 were considered to have sarcopenia.
Endocrine therapy included tamoxifen (n = 103), aromatase inhibitor therapy (n = 419), and ovarian ablation (n = 23). Some women received multiple therapies.
Key Results
More than one third (35%) of women had sarcopenia at baseline.
Sarcopenia more than doubled the odds of endocrine-related side effects (odds ratio [OR], 2.31; P= .01) and almost doubled the odds that women would change or stop treatment because of them (OR, 1.94;
