Definition
Cachexia came from the Greek “kakos” and “hexis” meaning “bad conditions.” Cachexia is a complex metabolic syndrome characterized by progressive weight loss with extensive loss of skeletal muscle and adipose tissue, which is secondary to the growing malignancy.
Characteristics
Most cancer patients develop cachexia at some point during the course of their disease, and nearly one-half of all cancer patients have weight loss at diagnosis. Cachexia prevents effective treatments for cancer and predicts a poor prognosis because the severity of wasting inversely correlates with survival. The consequences of cachexia are detrimental and cachexia is considered to be the direct cause of about 20 % of cancer deaths. The pathogenesis of cancer cachexia remains to be fully understood, but it is evidently multifactorial.
Weight Loss
Clinically, cachexia should be suspected if involuntary weight loss of more than five percent of premorbid weight occurs within a 6-month period. Weight loss...
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References
Argiles JM, Busquets S, Lopez-Soriano FJ (2006) Cytokines as mediators and targets for cancer cachexia. Cancer Treat Res 130:199–217
Bing C, Brown M, King P et al (2000) Increased gene expression of brown fat uncoupling protein (UCP)1 and skeletal muscle UCP2 and UCP3 in MAC16-induced cancer cachexia. Cancer Res 60:2405–2410
Bing C, Russell S, Becket E et al (2006) Adipose atrophy in cancer cachexia: morphologic and molecular analysis of adipose tissue in tumour-bearing mice. Br J Cancer 95:1028–1037
Fearon KC, Moses AG (2002) Cancer cachexia. Int J Cardiol 85:73–81
Tisdale MJ (2002) Cachexia in cancer patients. Nat Rev Cancer 2:862–871
See Also
(2012) Brown adipose tissue. In: Schwab M (ed) Encyclopedia of cancer, 3rd edn. Springer, Berlin/Heidelberg, p 572. doi:10.1007/978-3-642-16483-5_742
(2012) Eicosapentaenoic acid. In: Schwab M (ed) Encyclopedia of cancer, 3rd edn. Springer, Berlin/Heidelberg, p 1212. doi:10.1007/978-3-642-16483-5_1836
(2012) Hyperlipidemia. In: Schwab M (ed) Encyclopedia of cancer, 3rd edn. Springer, Berlin/Heidelberg, p 1784. doi:10.1007/978-3-642-16483-5_2909
(2012) Lipogenesis. In: Schwab M (ed) Encyclopedia of cancer, 3rd edn. Springer, Berlin/Heidelberg, p 2055. doi:10.1007/978-3-642-16483-5_3378
(2012) MyoD. In: Schwab M (ed) Encyclopedia of cancer, 3rd edn. Springer, Berlin/Heidelberg, p 2440. doi:10.1007/978-3-642-16483-5_3942
(2012) Neuropeptide Y. In: Schwab M (ed) Encyclopedia of cancer, 3rd edn. Springer, Berlin/Heidelberg, p 2504. doi:10.1007/978-3-642-16483-5_4043
(2012) Resting energy expenditure. In: Schwab M (ed) Encyclopedia of cancer, 3rd edn. Springer, Berlin/Heidelberg, p 3264. doi:10.1007/978-3-642-16483-5_5060
(2012) Uncoupling protein-1. In: Schwab M (ed) Encyclopedia of cancer, 3rd edn. Springer, Berlin/Heidelberg, p 3846. doi:10.1007/978-3-642-16483-5_6106
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Bing, C. (2015). Cachexia. In: Schwab, M. (eds) Encyclopedia of Cancer. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27841-9_766-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27841-9_766-2
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