Sarcopenic Obesity w/Muscle Mass Depletion/Affects on Chemo

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http://patient.cancerconsultants.com/Ca ... ,treatment

ARTICLE:

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Sarcopenic obesity, or obesity with depleted muscle mass, affects distribution of chemotherapy and ultimately may significantly affect mortality among obese patients with cancer. These results were recently published in the Lancet Oncology.

Body composition, or the ratio of muscle to fat, varies widely in patients who are obese, and the metabolism of different types of tissue can greatly affect the way medications—including chemotherapy—are distributed and broken down throughout the body. Researchers are discovering that physical activity, diet and obesity affect the overall risk and potential outcomes of cancer among patients. Therefore, researchers from Canada recently conducted a clinical trial to explore the potential effects of sarcopenic obesity and the corresponding outcomes of patients with cancer.

This trial included 250 patients with cancer who were classified as obese. Thirty –eight percent of these patients were considered to have sarcopenic obesity.

Patients with sarcopenic obesity had a four-fold increase in death compared to those without sarcopenic obesity

Patients with sarcopenic obesity had worse functional status (the ability to perform daily activities and self-care) than their counterparts.

Due to the different distribution of chemotherapy within the body, researchers believe that sarcopenic obesity could also significantly affect side effects caused by chemotherapy.

The researchers concluded that “This study provides evidence of the great variability of body composition in patients with cancer and links body composition, especially sarcopenic obesity, to clinical implications such as functional status, survival, and potentially, chemotherapy toxicity.” As well, the authors stated that “we estimated that individual variation in [different body compositions] could account for up to three-times variation in effective volume of distribution for chemotherapy administered per unit body-surface area, in this population.”

These results provide data that could potentially affect chemotherapy dosing in the future. Further testing that explores outcomes associated with sarcopenic obesity is warranted.

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(Cancer Consultants, Oncology Resource Center, July 16, 2008)

Disclaimer:

The information contained in these articles may or may not be in agreement with my own opinions. They are not posted as medical advice of any kind.