Cancer Cachexia

Abstract

Overview Cachexia is a systemic wasting syndrome of progressive muscle and, usually, adipose loss, multi‐organ dysfunction, and wide metabolic derangement, often exacerbated by anorexia and diminished nutritional intake. More than half of all cancer patients develop cachexia, which directly causes profound morbidity and substantially reduced survival. New large‐scale high‐dimensional clinical and experimental studies are revealing unexpected ground truths that cachexia frequently occurs in early stages of many cancers; has several distinct clinical phenotypes; increases complications of and reduces response to cancer‐directed therapies. More precise tools for early assessment, diagnosis, and multi‐modal interventions, including quantitative image‐based body composition analysis, molecular biomarkers, and new targeted therapeutics are in advanced development. These advances, with rapidly expanding basic research into causal molecular mechanisms, are transforming our fundamental understanding of this complex disease as being integral with cancer biology, treatment response, and patient outcomes.