Cachexia is the medical term forunintentional weight loss, progressive muscle wasting, and aloss of appetite.
Newer research suggests that exercise, though counterintuitive, may help.
This article will go over the causes of cachexia in people with cancer and other conditions.
Verywell / JR Bee
It also covers how cancer cachexia can affect treatment and how the syndrome can be managed.
Cachexia is dominated by catabolic metabolism (which happens when digesting food).
This abnormal metabolic rate is resulting from the immune systems response to diseases such as cancer.
Cancer
People who have cancer often develop cachexia.
Host response simply means the bodys response to the tumor.
It can develop with any advanced cancer but most frequently withlung,pancreatic, and stomach cancers.
Other Conditions
Along with cancer, cachexia is also associated with a multitude of other chronic conditions.
Yet it goes further thanunexplained weight loss.
Weight loss may occur even if calorie intake is adequate; energy output matters.
It can also be fairly insidious.
Cachexia also increases the symptom burden of the underlying disease.
The process of muscle wasting that accompanies cachexia can lead to difficulty walking and participating in enjoyable activities.
It can eventually lead to the loss of the ability to live independently.
All of these changes and more can significantly diminish your quality of life and increase risk of morbidity.
Can a Person Recover From Cachexia?
The best hope for recovery from cachexia is to improve the underlying condition at the root of it.
As such, cachexia is often presentbeforeany weight loss occurs.
There are several ways that cachexia can be evaluated.
However, there is no single screening tool that is effective in detecting cachexia in every case.
Researchers have developed a cachexia staging score for people with advanced cancer.
A different number of points are assigned to each component and added together to separate cachexia into three stages.
Researchers found that for each increase in grade, survival decreased significantly.
At the current time, most researchers believe a combination of treatments (multimodality therapy) is essential.
If calories are pushed too rapidly, a side effect called overfeeding syndrome may occur.
When eating is not possible orally (or is limited), a feeding tube may be recommended.
Many healthcare providers recommend eating frequent small meals with an emphasis on calorie-dense foods.
Nutritional supplements such as Ensure are often recommended, butshould notbe used as a substitute for meals.
Its usually recommended that when used, these products should be consumedbetweenmeals.
These amino acids are being evaluated in combination with other therapies to assess their potential benefit.
Exercise
It may seem counterintuitive, but increasing activity (if possible) may help.
Its thought that exercise may reduce inflammation and also affect metabolism in muscles themselves.
Appetite Stimulants
Appetite stimulants have been used for treating cachexia, though their effects are unclear.
There is some evidence that these medications may improve prognosis.
Medical Marijuana
Thus far the evidence for the use of cannabis for cancer-related cachexia-anorexia is equivocal.
Drugs that target inflammatory compounds such ascytokines(which contribute to muscle breakdown) are intriguing.
Finally, as with many conditions, efforts to target gut bacteria deserve further study.
It is often irreversible.
Treatment incorporates several types of therapies including medications like appetite stimulants, nutritional supplements, and exercise.
Hardee JP, Counts BR, Carson JA.Understanding the role of exercise in cancer cachexia therapy.Am J Lifestyle Med.
2020;12:5597-5605. doi:10.2147/CMAR.S261585
National Cancer Institute.Cancer cachexia: after years of no advances, progress looks possible.
2021;104(1):34-40.
Law ML.Cancer cachexia: Pathophysiology and association with cancer-related pain.Front Pain Res.
2022;3:971295. doi:10.3389/fpain.2022.971295
Dev R.Measuring cachexiadiagnostic criteria.Ann Palliat Med.
31(1):23-32.
Dev R.Measuring cachexia-diagnostic criteria.
Annals of Palliative Medicine.
7(5): 11071135.
