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Hormonal and Nutritional Factors Contributing to Tumour Cachexia

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Hormones and Nutrition in Obesity and Cachexia

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Abstract

The majority of cancer patients lose weight (Nixon et al. 1980) and a proportion become emaciated to the point that they appear to die of starvation. This syndrome is known as cancer cachexia, the term cachexia being derived from the Greek words kaxos and hexis, meaning poor condition. The patient with cachexia is clinically characterised by the presence of anorexia, early satiety, severe weight loss, asthenia, anaemia and oedema (Caiman 1982). The importance of cachexia has been long recognised. As far back as 1932 Warren, in a post mortem study of 500 cancer patients, concluded that 22% of deaths were directly attributable to cachexia and this was the single most common cause of death in cancer patients. More recent studies (Inagaki et al. 1974) have suggested that this figure is closer to 10%, however, more than 50% of cancer deaths are attributable to sepsis, and there remains the complex relationship between nutritional depletion and a propensity to infection.

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Authors
  1. K. C. H. Fearon
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department Innere Medizin und Dermatologie, Abteilung Gastroenterologie und Hepatologie, Medizinische Hochschule Hannover, Konstanty-Gutschow-Strasse 8, D-3000, Hannover 61, Germany

    Manfred J. Müller

  2. Clinical Research Center, Medical Center Hospital of Vermont, The University of Vermont, 05041, Burlington, VT, USA

    Elliot Danforth Jr.

  3. Division d’Endocrinologie, Hôpital Cantonal Universitaire, 24 rue Micheli-du-Crest, CH-1211, Genève 4, Switzerland

    Alfred G. Burger

  4. B. Braun Melsungen AG, Postfach 120, D-3508, Melsungen, Germany

    Uwe Siedentopp

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© 1990 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Fearon, K.C.H. (1990). Hormonal and Nutritional Factors Contributing to Tumour Cachexia. In: Müller, M.J., Danforth, E., Burger, A.G., Siedentopp, U. (eds) Hormones and Nutrition in Obesity and Cachexia. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-75037-3_9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-75037-3_9

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-51637-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-75037-3

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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