Abstract
Nutrition status has an important effect on quality of life and sense of well-being in cancer patients. Malnutrition and weight loss are often contributors to the cause of death in cancer patients. 1 Cancer cachexia is a syndrome characterized by progressive, involuntary weight loss. Clinical features include host tissue wasting, anorexia, skeletal muscle atrophy, anergy, fatigue, anemia, and hypoalbuminemia. Causes of cancer cachexia include anorexia, mechanical factors affecting the gastrointestinal tract related to tumor, side effects of surgery, chemotherapy and/or radiation therapy, alterations in intermediary and energy metabolism, and changes in the host cytokine and hormonal milieu. The cancer cachexia syndrome (CCS), which is observed in approximately 50% of cancer patients, involves heterogeneous physiologic and metabolic derangements resulting in potentially life-threatening malnutrition. 2 Although often seen in patients with advanced malignancies, CCS may be present in the early stages of tumor growth. Weight loss in cancer patients is of prognostic significance. For any given tumor type, survival is shorter in patients who experience pretreatment weight loss. 3-5
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