The association between body composition and toxicities from the combination of Doxil and trabectedin in patients with advanced relapsed ovarian cancer.

Emerging research suggests that body composition can predict toxicity of certain chemotherapeutic agents. We used data from a clinical study to investigate associations between body composition and combined DOXIL (pegylated liposomal doxorubicin; PLD) and trabectedin (Yondelis) treatment, an effective treatment for ovarian cancer that shows high interpatient variation in toxicity profile. Patients (n = 74) participating in a phase III randomized trial of relapsed advanced ovarian cancer receiving PLD (30 mg/m(2)) and trabectedin (1.

Cancer cachexia in the age of obesity: skeletal muscle depletion is a powerful prognostic factor, independent of body mass index.

Purpose: Emerging evidence suggests muscle depletion predicts survival of patients with cancer.

Patients And Methods: At a cancer center in Alberta, Canada, consecutive patients with cancer (lung or GI; N = 1,473) were assessed at presentation for weight loss history, lumbar skeletal muscle index, and mean muscle attenuation (Hounsfield units) by computed tomography (CT). Univariate and multivariate analyses were conducted.

Nutritional status, cachexia and survival in patients with advanced colorectal carcinoma. Different assessment criteria for nutritional status provide unequal results.

Background & Aims: Different nutrition assessment tools and definitions are proposed for cancer-associated malnutrition and wasting (cachexia). We studied the associations between these assessments and overall survival in stage IV colorectal carcinoma patients.

Methods: Anthropometric measures, energy intake, biochemical variables, nutritional risk screening, assessment of malnutrition, cachexia and body composition from computed tomography images were analysed, in 77 patients from Norway and Canada.

The association of nutritional assessment criteria with health-related quality of life in patients with advanced colorectal carcinoma.

Health-related quality of life (QoL) is a goal in nutritional oncology but the association between nutritional status and QoL is rarely explored. The aim of the study was to investigate the association of nutritional assessment criteria with QoL in 50 patients with advanced colorectal carcinoma. A second aim was to investigate changes in body weight and QoL during a 3-month follow-up.

Low body mass index and sarcopenia associated with dose-limiting toxicity of sorafenib in patients with renal cell carcinoma.

Background: Patients with severe depletion of skeletal muscle (sarcopenia) are prone to dose-limiting toxicity (DLT) during fluoropyrimidine therapy. We hypothesized that sarcopenia may also predict toxicity of targeted therapy drugs.

Materials And Methods: Metastatic renal cell cancer (RCC) patients (n = 55) received sorafenib 400 mg b.

Association of skeletal muscle wasting with treatment with sorafenib in patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma: results from a placebo-controlled study.

PURPOSE Effects of specific antineoplastic therapies on progression of cancer-associated wasting remain uncharacterized. We selected a targeted therapy, sorafenib, because of its reported association with weight loss. PATIENTS AND METHODS Patients with metastatic renal cell cancer (RCC) who were resistant to standard therapy (N = 80) received sorafenib 400 mg twice daily or placebo in a randomized, double-blinded clinical trial.

Sarcopenia in an overweight or obese patient is an adverse prognostic factor in pancreatic cancer.

Purpose: The average weight-losing pancreatic cancer patient undergoing palliative therapy is frequently overweight rather than underweight, and this can confound conventional measures used for risk stratification. The aim of this study was to evaluate if weight and body composition, specifically sarcopenia, assessed from diagnostic computed tomography (CT) scans, is of prognostic value in patients with pancreatic cancer. The nature and extent of tissue loss over subsequent months was also evaluated.

The emerging role of computerized tomography in assessing cancer cachexia.

Purpose Of Review: The present review represents an overview of the potential opportunistic use of computerized tomography (CT) to enhance our understanding of abnormal body composition, specifically lean and adipose tissue changes in cancer cachexia.

Recent Findings: One of the characteristics of cancer cachexia is the depletion of muscle with or without adipose tissue loss. Therefore, a body composition tool that specifically distinguishes between these tissues is essential in assessing this syndrome.