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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Nutr.
Sec. Clinical Nutrition
Volume 11 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fnut.2024.1398807
This article is part of the Research Topic Nutrition and Metabolism in Cancer: Role in Prevention and Prognosis View all 8 articles

Body fat ratio as a novel predictor of complications and survival after rectal cancer surgery

Provisionally accepted
Haiyuan Zhao Haiyuan Zhao Gang Liu Gang Liu Yang Li Yang Li Feixiang Lu Feixiang Lu Nianzhao Yang Nianzhao Yang Jun Zhao Jun Zhao *
  • First Affiliated Hospital of Wannan Medical College, Wuhu, Anhui Province, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    The present study aimed to evaluate the association between body fat ratio (BFR), visceral fat area (VFA), body mass index (BMI) and visceral fat density (VFD) and assess their reliability in assessing risk of postoperative complications and survival status in patients with rectal cancer (RC).The present study retrospectively included 460 patients who underwent surgical treatment for RC at the First Affiliated Hospital of Wannan Medical College (Yijishan Hospital of Wannan Medical College, Wuhu, China) between September 2018 and July 2021. BFR, VFA, BMI, and VFD were measured and basic information, clinical data, complications and survival were recorded.Results: Statistical analysis was performed to determine optimal BFR cut-off and evaluate group differences. BFR demonstrated a significant positive correlation with VFA (R=0.739) and BMI (R=0.783) and significant negative correlation with VFD (R=-0.773). The areas under the receiver operating characteristic curve of BFR, VFA, BMI and VFD in predicting postoperative complications in RC were all >0.7 and the optimal cut-off value of BFR was 24.3.Patients in the BFR-low group had fewer postoperative complications, lower intraoperative indices, shorter hospitalization times and lower costs than those in the BFR-high group. BFR predicted complications with high diagnostic significance and was validated by multiple models. Furthermore, patients in the BFR-high group had a longer overall survival compared with patients in the BFR-low group.BFR was associated with BMI, VFA and VFD. A BFR threshold of 24.3 was correlated with decreased complications and enhanced long-term survival.

    Keywords: Body fat ratio, postoperative rectal cancer, complication, Survival, Nomogram model

    Received: 10 Mar 2024; Accepted: 30 Jul 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Zhao, Liu, Li, Lu, Yang and Zhao. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Jun Zhao, First Affiliated Hospital of Wannan Medical College, Wuhu, 241001, Anhui Province, China

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