Abstract
Advanced gastrointestinal cancer patients with weight loss and an acute-phase response (n = 15) were given megestrol acetate (480 mg day(-1)) and ibuprofen (1200 mg day(-1)) for 6 weeks. Overall, there was an increase in body weight (P = 0.01) and a reduction in C-reactive protein concentrations (P = 0.02), with no change in total body water (P = 0.24) over this period. This regimen may be an effective non-toxic treatment for cancer cachexia and is worthy of further study.
Highlights
In similar studies looking at advanced gastrointestinal cancer patients alone, no significant gain in weight has been documented (Schmoll et al, 1991; McMillan et al, 1994)
It is of interest that the majority of patients with advanced gastrointestinal cancer and weight loss have an ongoing acute-phase protein response (McMillan et al, 1994), and we have recently demonstrated that the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug, ibuprofen, can reduce mediators of the inflammatory response, such as interleukin-6 and cortisol (McMillan et al, 1995), and metabolic end points, such as the acute-phase protein response (Preston et al, 1995) and resting energy expenditure (Wigmore et al, 1995)
There was a significant increase in weight after 6 weeks of megestrol acetate and ibuprofen (P = 0.01), the median weight change of the group being 1.3 kg
Summary
The aim of the present study was to test, in a small group of patients with advanced gastrointestinal cancer, the hypothesis that down-regulating the acute-phase response using ibuprofen and
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