Association between increased Subcutaneous Adipose Tissue Radiodensity and cancer mortality: Automated computation, comparison of cancer types, gender, and scanner bias

PURPOSE

Body composition analysis using computed tomography (CT) is proposed as a predictor of cancer mortality. An association between subcutaneous adipose tissue radiodensity (SATr) and cancer-specific mortality was established, while gender effects and equipment bias were estimated.

METHODS

7,475 CT studies were selected from 17 cohorts containing CT images of untreated cancer patients who underwent follow-up for a period of 2.1-118.8 months. SATr measures were collected from published data (n = 6,718) or calculated according to CT images using a deep-learning network (n = 757). The association between SATr and mortality was ascertained for each cohort and gender using the p-value from either logistic regression or ROC analysis. The Kruskal-Wallis test was used to analyze differences between gender distributions, and automatic segmentation was evaluated using the Dice score and five-point Likert quality scale. Gender effect, scanner bias and changes in the Hounsfield unit (HU) to detect hazards were also estimated.

RESULTS

Higher SATr was associated with mortality in eight cancer types (p < 0.05). Automatic segmentation produced a score of 0.949 while the quality scale measurement was good to excellent. The extent of gender effect was 5.2 HU while the scanner bias was 10.3 HU. The minimum proposed HU change to detect a patient at risk of death was between 5.6 and 8.3 HU.

CONCLUSIONS

CT imaging provides valuable assessments of body composition as part of the staging process for several cancer types, saving both time and cost. Gender specific scales and scanner bias adjustments should be carried out to successfully implement SATr measures in clinical practice.