Abdominal Aortic Calcification as a Predictor of Incomplete Adjuvant Chemotherapy in Stage III Colorectal Cancer: A Retrospective Cohort Study

Objectives Completion of postoperative adjuvant chemotherapy (AC) contributes to the improved prognosis of patients with pathological stage (pStage) III colorectal cancer (CRC). Therefore, identifying patients with AC intolerance is important. Although abdominal aortic calcification (AAC) indicates frailty, its clinical impact on AC completion remains unclear. This study aimed to clarify the association between AAC and AC incompletion. Methods Patients who underwent AC for pStage III CRC between 2010 and 2021 (n = 161) were enrolled in this study. AAC volume was evaluated by preoperative CT tomography, and the patients were divided into two groups based on an AAC cutoff of 992 mm³, determined using the receiver operating characteristic curves for AC completion. We investigated the perioperative clinicopathological factors and compared the frequency and severity of AC adverse events between the groups. Results The high AAC group had a significantly higher proportion of patients with older age, male sex, hypertension, and AC incompletion than the low AAC group. The regimens were not significantly different. No significant difference in the frequency or severity of adverse events was observed in either group. In the multivariate analysis, high AAC and older age were significantly associated with AC incompletion. Furthermore, k-means cluster analysis based on both age and AAC volume also demonstrated an increased risk of AC incompletion in patients with stage III CRC as both age and AAC volume increased. High AAC was associated with diminished improvement in nutritional status or inflammatory markers after the administration of AC. Conclusions High AAC is a potential risk marker for predicting AC incompletion in patients with stage III CRC before introducing AC. This article was previously posted to the Research Square preprint server on May 16, 2024.