Cachexia is a wasting condition in which a person loses weight and muscle that ordinary eating cannot restore. It is common in advanced cancers, including mesothelioma and lung cancer, and in severe lung disease. It causes weakness and fatigue and can make treatment harder to tolerate.
Origin
The word comes from the Greek kakos, bad, and hexis, condition. An international consensus published in 2011 defined cancer cachexia using criteria that include losing more than 5 percent of body weight over six months.
Significance in Asbestos Context
Cachexia is not simply poor appetite. The tumor and the body's inflammatory response change metabolism so that muscle breaks down even when the person eats. Unexplained weight loss is a recognized warning sign of mesothelioma, often noted at diagnosis, and progressive weight loss in advanced disease is linked to shorter survival and to more side effects from chemotherapy. Treatment focuses on nutrition counseling, managing symptoms that interfere with eating such as nausea, pain and breathlessness, gentle exercise to preserve muscle, and sometimes medicines to stimulate appetite; no treatment reliably reverses it. Palliative care teams have experience with it. For families, the change in a loved one's appearance can be distressing, and pressure to eat more may not help. For a claim, a record of weights over time and the person's loss of strength documents the physical toll of the disease.
Example Sentence
Over five months he lost 28 pounds despite nutritional supplements, and his palliative care doctor explained that the weight loss was cancer cachexia, not a failure to eat enough.
Related Terms
Palliative Care, Hospice, Quality of Life, Disease Progression, Mesothelioma, Median Survival, Noneconomic Damages
Notes
- Ask for a referral to a dietitian and to palliative care early; both can help with symptoms that make eating hard.
- Weigh in regularly and keep a simple log, or ask the clinic to record weight at each visit.
- Families: gentle encouragement helps more than pressure to eat.
In the research library
15 studies in our medical research library mention Cachexia in the title or abstract. Among the most cited:
- Macrophage Depletion in Elderly Mice Improves Response to Tumor Immunotherapy, Increases Anti-tumor T Cell Activity and Reduces Treatment-Induced CachexiaL. Duong, H.G. Radley-Crabb, J.K. Gardner, et al, 2018 · Frontiers in Genetics · cited 48 times
- Elevated Circulating Activin A Levels in Patients With Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma Are Related to Cancer Cachexia and Reduced Response to Platinum-based ChemotherapyJ. Paajanen, I. Ilonen, H. Lauri, et al, 2020 · Clinical Lung Cancer · cited 27 times
- The role of growth factors and cytokines in the tumorigenesis and immunobiology of malignant mesotheliomaD.R. Fitzpatrick, D.J. Peroni, H. Bielefeldt-Ohmann, 1995 · American Journal of Respiratory Cell and Molecular Biology · cited 68 times
- Peritoneal mesotheliomaA. Greenbaum, H.R. Alexander, 2020 · Translational Lung Cancer Research · cited 49 times
- Interleukin-6 involvement in mesothelioma pathobiology: inhibition by interferon alpha immunotherapyH. Bielefeldt-Ohmann, A.L. Marzo, R.P. Himbeck, et al, 1995 · Cancer Immunology, Immunotherapy · cited 44 times
The journals that publish most on it: Cancer Immunology, Immunotherapy (1), Clinical Lung Cancer (1), Journal of Clinical Gastroenterology (1).
Category: Clinical Signs & Symptoms · All Lexicon terms A–Z
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