Chung E, et al. - In rectal cancer patients who had preoperative chemoradiotherapy (preop-CRT), researchers studied the prognostic impact of sarcopenia and skeletal muscle change. Non-metastatic rectal cancer patients who had preop-CRT were identified from April 2004 to June 2013. Based on the previous cut-off value, sarcopenia was assessed by computed tomography measured before starting preop-CRT (sarcopenia_pre) and 4-6 weeks after cessation of preop-CRT (sarcopenia_post). Of the 93 patients who had pre and post-CRT CTs, 48 and 51 were identified respectively as sarcopenia_pre and sarcopenia_post. Sarcopenia_post and severe muscle loss along with age and ypStage were identified as independent risk factors for overall survival by multivariable analysis. The only factor that can predict severe muscle loss was clinical T4 stage. Findings suggested that sarcopenia identified after preop-CRT completion and change in muscle mass < -4.2%/100 days during preop-CRT are promising parameters for predicting overall survival in patients with locally advanced rectal cancer.