PP009 - DYNAPENIA ASSESSED BY HANDGRIP STRENGTH PREDICTS SURVIVAL IN HEAD AND NECK CANCER. VALOR GROUP.

PP009

DYNAPENIA ASSESSED BY HANDGRIP STRENGTH PREDICTS SURVIVAL IN HEAD AND NECK CANCER. VALOR GROUP.

M. García Olivares^1,*, R. Fernández Jiménez¹, M. T. Zarco Martín², M. Novo Rodriguez³, M. González Pacheco⁴, I. Prior Sánchez⁵, A. Carmona Llanos⁶, M. C. Roque Cuellar⁷, A. Sanz Sanz⁸, F. Flores Torres⁹, M. Galindo¹⁰, L. M. Luengo Pérez¹¹, G. Olveira¹², J. M. Garcia Almeida¹³ on behalf of VALOR Group.

¹Endocrinology and Nutrition, Virgen de la Victoria Málaga Hospital , Malaga, ²Endocrinology and Nutrition, San Cecilio Hospital, ³Endocrinology and Nutrition, Virgen de las Nieves Hospital, Granada, ⁴Endocrinology and Nutrition, Puerta del Mar Hospital, Cádiz, ⁵Endocrinology and Nutrition, Jaen University Hospital, Jaen, ⁶Endocrinology and Nutrition, Jerez de la Frontera Hospital, Jerez de la Frontera, ⁷Endocrinology and Nutrition, Virgen del Rocio Hospital, Sevilla, ⁸Endocrinology and Nutrition, Reina Sofía Hospital, Córdoba, ⁹Endocrinology and Nutrition, Virgen de Valme Hospital, ¹⁰Endocrinology and Nutrition, Virgen Macarena Hospital, Sevilla, ¹¹Endocrinology and Nutrition, Badajoz University Hospital, Badajoz, ¹²Endocrinology and Nutrition, Regional University Hospital , ¹³Endocrinology and Nutrition, Virgen de la Victoria Málaga Hospital , Málaga, Spain

Rationale: Alterations in muscle function, particularly dynapenia, have a major impact on morbidity, treatment tolerance, and survival in cancer patients. However, their clinical utility remains insufficiently characterized in head and neck cancer (HNC).

Methods: We conducted a multicenter observational study including 504 HNC patients undergoing radiotherapy. Handgrip strength was assessed using dynamometry, and dynapenia was defined according to EWGSOP2 criteria and age- and sex-adjusted percentiles (P10) derived from a reference population in Málaga. Body composition was evaluated using bioelectrical impedance analysis and muscle ultrasound. Multivariate logistic regression, ROC analysis, and Cox proportional hazards models were performed.

Results: Dynapenic patients showed impaired body composition, including lower standardized phase angle, fat-free mass index, and rectus femoris cross-sectional area, as well as worse functional performance. Key morphofunctional variables were independently associated with dynapenia, with good discriminative ability in combined models. Dynapenia defined by population-based percentiles showed the strongest association with mortality, with significantly reduced survival observed in Kaplan–Meier analyses.

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Conclusion: Dynapenia is a robust prognostic marker in HNC. Population-based cut-offs derived from local reference data, combined with morphofunctional assessment, improve risk stratification and may support earlier identification of high-risk patients in clinical practice.

Disclosure of Interest: None declared