Association of Sarcopenia and Expression of Interleukin-16 in Gastric Cancer Survival
Jianping Xiong, Haitao Hu, Wenzhe Kang, Xinxin Shao, Li Yang, Peng Jin, Yantao Tian
Abstract
We designed the present work to explore the connection between sarcopenia and interleukin-16 (IL-16) expression and their integrated relation with gastric cancer (GC) survival. We deemed the sex-specific third lumbar vertebra skeletal muscle index cutoffs for sarcopenia to be ≤40.8 and ≤34.9 cm2/m2 in male and female patients, respectively. Immunohistochemistry was carried out to detect IL-16 levels among GC tissues of the patients. We determined overall survival (OS) and relapse-free survival (RFS) by univariate and multivariate analyses. This study included 225 GC cases, with an average age of 62.7 years. There were 41 (18.2%) female patients, and 107 (47.5%) patients had sarcopenia. Sarcopenia and high IL-16 expression were identified as independent factors to predict OS (hazard ratios [HR] = 1.64 and 1.79, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.25–2.23 and 1.16–2.78, respectively) and RFS (HR = 1.43 and 1.60, 95% CI = 1.15–2.95 and 1.10–2.37, respectively). There were more cases showing high IL-16 expression detected in the sarcopenia group (55.7% vs. 37.3%, p = 0.003). Later, we grouped the patients with sarcopenia and IL-16 expression and discovered that the patients with sarcopenia and IL-16 upregulation displayed the poorest OS (HR = 3.02; 95% CI = 1.64–5.91) and RFS (HR = 2.34; 95% CI = 1.47–4.69). In conclusion, more IL-16 upregulation was noted in GC patients with sarcopenia. Sarcopenia accompanied by high IL-16 expression remarkably indicates a dismal prognosis in GC patients. This suggests that these biomarkers may be able to identify patients with GC with poor prognosis and enhance prognostication.