Visceral adiposity rather than BMI predicts overall survival after curative gastrectomy for gastric cancer: a retrospective cohort study with age-stratified analyses

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Source: Frontiers Medicine

Original: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmed.2026.1792163...

Published: 2026-03-18T00:00:00Z

The study investigated how visceral fat and body mass index (BMI) predict survival in gastric cancer patients after surgery. In a sample of 868 patients, it was found that increased visceral adiposity (the amount of fat around the internal organs) independently predicted worse overall survival, regardless of BMI.[1][2] Conversely, higher BMI categories were not accompanied by an increased risk of death, and even lower BMI was associated with significantly worse survival.[1] Visceral adiposity was a better prognostic indicator than BMI - according to research, the ROC curve for VFA was 0.826 compared to 0.707 for BMI.[2] The correlation between BMI and visceral fat was weak, suggesting that these metrics provide different biological information.[1] The study concluded that routine inclusion of computed tomography visceral fat measurement in the preoperative evaluation could improve the identification of patients at increased risk of adverse outcomes and promote better perioperative management.[1]