Author(s)

Lijuan Zhang^*, Qiaoling Zhong^*, Yun Ding, Jinlan Li, Qinghua Luo, Liping Zhang, Yuezhou Guo, Na Li^#, Huizhen Zhang^#

State Key Laboratory of South China Oncology, Cancer Prevention and Treatment Center Affiliated to Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China.

Background: The segmental multi-frequency bioelectrical impedance analysis (SMF-BIA) is a useful method for evaluating physical health and nutritional status in various clinical settings. But less is known about its role in the preoperative assessment of breast cancer patients. Herein, we try to monitor the changes in body composition of preoperative patients by SMF-BIA and figure out its association with clinical features. Methods: The changes in body composition were monitored by SMF-BIA in 563 female patients with breast cancer. Monitor body moisture and collect relevant data on the day before surgery as a prospective study. Retrospective analysis will be conducted based on preoperative data and pathological results after lymph node resection, Spearman’s correlation coefficients were calculated to investigate the correlation among parameters. Results: We found that the body water, extracellular water ratio, and bioelectrical impedance of the affected upper limbs of patients with different tumor stages or different numbers of lymph node metastases were significantly different from those of their healthy upper limbs (P < 0.05). Among them, the body water and extracellular water ratio of the affected upper limbs were notably higher than those of the healthy ones (P < 0.05), while the bioelectrical impedance (1 kHz, 5 kHz) of the affected upper limbs was lower than that of the healthy ones (P < 0.05). Moreover, tumor stage was significantly correlated with the extracellular water ratio and bioelectrical impedance (1 kHz, 5 kHz) of the affected upper limbs (P < 0.05), and the number of lymph node metastases was significantly correlated with the difference in body water and extracellular water ratio (P < 0.05). Conclusion: SMF-BIA can help monitor the changes in body composition of breast cancer patients and provide detailed information for making a personalized treatment plan and individual nursing schedule. However, the value of SMF-BIA in preoperative assessment still needs to be validated in large prospective clinical trials.

Breast Cancer, Body Composition, Tumor Stages, Lymphatic Metastasis, Multi-Frequency Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis

Zhang, L. , Zhong, Q. , Ding, Y. , Li, J. , Luo, Q. , Zhang, L. , Guo, Y. , Li, N. and Zhang, H. (2024) The Role of Body Composition Analyzer in the Preoperative Assessment of Breast Cancer Patients. Journal of Cancer Therapy, 15, 320-329. doi: 10.4236/jct.2024.159031.