ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Nutr.
Sec. Clinical Nutrition
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fnut.2025.1584706
This article is part of the Research TopicNutrition Counseling for Non-Communicable Disease ManagementView all 11 articles
Comparative Assessment of Sarcopenia Screening Tools for Patients with Bone Tumors: Insights for Enhanced Clinical Application
Provisionally accepted
- 1Yunnan Cancer Hospital, Kunming, Yunnan Province, China
- 2National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore
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Background: Sarcopenia screening in bone tumor patients is challenging due to limited awareness, complex procedures, and high costs-especially since most research targets older adults, overlooking younger patients in this group. This study aims to compare the screening efficacy of five different tools for sarcopenia, and to identify the most appropriate screening tool for patients with bone tumors.The five sarcopenia screening tools assessed were SARC-F, SARC-Calf, SARC-F+EBM, and the Chinese versions of the Mini-Sarcopenia Risk Assessment scales (MSRA-5 and MSRA-7). The 2019 Asia Working Group for Sarcopenia (AWGS) criteria served as the reference standard for sarcopenia screening.Results: Among 300 bone tumor patients, 26% were found to have sarcopenia based on AWGS 2019 criteria. The screening tools varied in performance, with SARC-Calf showing the highest sensitivity and MSRA-7 the lowest specificity. Positive and negative predictive values were moderate across tools, with combined screening methods generally improving sensitivity. The highest overall accuracy (AUC) was observed when using a combination of SARC-F, SARC-Calf, and EBM, which provided both high sensitivity and acceptable specificity.The SARC-Calf and SARC-F+EBM tools demonstrated high accuracy in screening sarcopenia among bone tumor patients. The combined use of SARC-F, SARC-Calf, and SARC-F+EBM yielded superior screening performance, making them suitable for preliminary sarcopenia screening in this patient population.
Keywords: Sarcopenia, screening tool, Sensitivity and Specificity, bone tumor, Chinese patients ORCID iDs
Received: 27 Feb 2025; Accepted: 11 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Yu, Guan, Chen, Zhou, Chen and Zeng. 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: Chloe Zeng, National University of Singapore, Singapore, 119077, Singapore
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