Abstract
Cancer cachexia affects about 80% of advanced cancer patients, it is linked to poor prognosis and to date, there is no efficient treatment or cure. The syndrome leads to progressive involuntary loss of muscle and fat mass induced by systemic inflammatory processes. The role of the white adipose tissue (WAT) in the onset and manifestation of cancer cachexia gained importance during the last decade. WAT wasting is not only characterized by increased lipolysis and release of free fatty acids (FFA), but in addition, owing to its high capacity to produce a variety of inflammatory factors. The aim of this study was to characterize plasma lipid profile of cachectic patients and to correlate the FA composition with circulating inflammatory markers; finally, we sought to establish whether the fatty acids released by adipocytes trigger and/or contribute to local and systemic inflammation in cachexia. The study selected 65 patients further divided into 3 groups: control (N); weight stable cancer (WSC); and cachectic cancer (CC). The plasma FA profile was significantly different among the groups and was positively correlated with pro-inflammatory cytokines expression in the CC patients. Therefore, we propose that saturated to unsaturated FFA ratio may serve as a means of detecting cachexia.
Highlights
Cancer is nowadays recognized as the second leading cause of death worldwide according to the World Health Organization (WHO)
Cancer cells and interacting host cells produce a battery of pro-inflammatory cytokines, such as tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) and Interleukin 6 (IL-6), among many others, that play a central role in the induction and in the course of cancer cachexia [6,7,8]
Studies of our research group [12,13,14,15,16] showed that in both animals and patients, white adipose tissue (WAT) is a major source of inflammatory factors in cachexia and a possible contributor to the generation and maintenance of the systemic inflammation that is associated with the syndrome
Summary
Cancer is nowadays recognized as the second leading cause of death worldwide according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Little is known about the specific types of fatty acids released during human cancer cachexia and how the fatty acid profile could contribute to the progression of the systemic inflammation. This study investigated alterations of the fatty acid profile in cancer cachexia, and explored the ability of different types of fatty acids to correlate with inflammation. To this end, we assessed and compared the proportion of circulating fatty acids and inflammatory cytokines in cachectic cancer patients with that of non-cachectic cancer and control patients
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