Objective To explore the correlation between nutritional risk screening 2002（NRS ⁃ 2002） combined with scored patient ⁃generated subjective global assessment（PG ⁃ SGA）and sarcopenia in patients with malignant cancer. Methods A total of 456 patients with malignant cancer were recruited from 5 hospitals in Jilin Province. NRS⁃2002 scale and PG⁃SGA scale were used to evaluate the nutritional status of the patients. According to the results of scoring，the nutritional status of patients was divided into four levels；normal nutrition（NRS⁃2002 score < 3 and PG⁃SGA score < 9），nutrition risk（NRS⁃2002 score ≥ 3 and PG⁃SGA score < 9），probable malnutrition （NRS⁃2002 score < 3 and PG⁃SGA score ≥ 9）and malnutrition（NRS⁃2002 score ≥ 3 and PG⁃SGA score ≥ 9）. The patients were divided into three groups according to the European Working Group on Sarcopenia in Older People（EWGSOP）：probable sarcopenia group（n = 222），sarcopenia group（n = 148）and severe sarcopenia group（n = 86）. The related physical and chemical indicators of the patients also were measured. Results The physical and chemical indicators of different sarcopenia groups showed difference（P < 0.001）. Nutritional status was negatively correlated with body mass index（BMI），arm circumference（AC），arm muscle circumference （AMC），waist circumference（WC），visceral fat area（VFA），basal metabolic rate（BMR），total protein（TP）， prealbumin（PA），albumin（ALB），high density lipoprotein cholesterol（HDL⁃C），serum sodium ion（Na+ ）， serum potassium ion（K+）and serum calcium ion（Ca2+）and the difference was statistically significant（P < 0.01）. Nutritional status was positively correlated with the grade of sarcopenia，gamma glutamyl transferase（GGT）and alkaline phosphatase（ALP），showing statistical significance（P < 0.001）. After adjusting for age，sex and BMI， logistic regression analysis showed that sarcopenia in the malnutrition group was 1.572 times higher than that in normal nutrition group（95%Cl：1.366 ~ 1.809）. The prevalence of sarcopenia varied in groups with different nutri⁃ tional status，indicating statistical significance（χ2 = 112.941，P < 0.001）. The combined prevalence of sarcopenia and severe sarcopenia in the malnutrition group was the highest of 74.36%. Conclusion There is correlation between NRS⁃2002 combined with PG⁃SGA and sarcopenia in patients with malignant cancer，and the combination of these two could effectively improve the positive screening rate of sarcopenia in patients with malignant cancer.