The impact of the preoperative hand grip strength on the long-term outcomes after gastrectomy for advanced gastric cancer.

PURPOSE

The correlation of the hand grip strength (HGS) and long-term outcomes after gastrectomy for gastric cancer patients is unknown. This study reveals the impact of the pre-operative HGS on the post-operative survival in gastric cancer patients.

METHODS

This study is a retrospective cohort of consecutive patients who underwent gastrectomy for primary p-T2 (MP) or more advanced gastric cancer from September 2014 to April 2018 with records of pre-operative HGS. The high and low HGS groups were compared by Kaplan-Meier survival analyses for the overall survival (OS), cancer-specific survival (CSS), other-cause survival (OCS), and disease-free survival (DFS).

RESULTS

Of the 96 patients, 35 (36.5%) were in the low HGS group, and 61 (63.5%) were in the high HGS group. The OS was significantly worse in the low HGS group than in the high HGS group (P = 0.013). There was no marked difference in the CSS (P = 0.214) or DFS (P = 0.675) between the groups, but the OCS was worse in the low HGS group than in the high HGS group (P = 0.029). Multivariate analyses of the prognostic factors concluded that a low HGS (P = 0.031) and open surgery (P = 0.011) were significant independent factors.

CONCLUSIONS

A low pre-operative HGS is an independent predictor of a poor prognosis after gastrectomy for patients with advanced gastric cancer and may increase the risk of other causes of death.