Body composition in cachexia resulting from malignant and non-malignant diseases

✍ Scribed by Walter S. Watson; Alastair M. Sammon

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1980
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 455 KB
• Volume: 46
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0008-543X
• DOI: 10.1002/1097-0142(19801101)46:9<2041::aid-cncr2820460923>3.0.co;2-a

✦ Synopsis

The body composition of 23 patients with cachexia resulting from malignant or benign inflammatory disease was studied. Skinfold thickness and radioisotope tracer measurements enabled us to estimate total body fat, lean body mass, the ratio of fat loss to lean body loss, erythrocyte and plasma volumes, total body water, extra-, and intracellular water volumes, total body potassium, and intracellular potassium concentration. The total body fat and lean body mass information suggests that the body composition in cancerous cachexia differs from that in cachexia caused by benign inflammatory disease, in that lean tissue appears to be better conserved in the former. The radioactive tracer studies showed that the cachectic patients were anemic, potassium-deficient, and overhydrated; however, fluid partitioning into extra-and intracellular compartments was normal.

Cancer 46:2041-2046. 1980.

P TO two-thirds of patients with malignant disease U have cachexia.I5 Many factors may be involved, e.g., anorexia, early appetite satiety, and abnormally high metabolic rate, and as a result, there is no simple relationship between the degree of cachexia and the type, size, or site of the tumor.3

The fact that the condition may limit or preclude cancer therapy has resulted in the use of total parenteral nutrition in an attempt to normalize these patients. There has been some success in terms of restoring immunocompetence and reducing morbidity and mortality for those undergoing therapy.'.* Despite this important work, relatively little is known about cancerous cachexia in terms of its effects on body composition."' In this study, skinfold thickness measurements and radioactive tracer methods were used in order to study and compare the effects on body composition of cachexia induced by malignant and benign inflammatory disease.