IDENTIFYING BIOMARKERS OF MUSCLE WASTING IN CANCER CACHEXIA

Abstract

Cancer cachexia is a multifactorial syndrome characterized by progressive muscle wasting, systemic inflammation, and metabolic disturbances, significantly impacting patient survival and quality of life. Early detection and monitoring of muscle loss remain critical challenges in oncology, emphasizing the need for reliable, non-invasive biomarkers.This study aimed to identify and evaluate clinical, molecular, and circulating biomarkers associated with muscle wasting in cancer cachexia across patients with colorectal, lung, gastric, and pancreatic cancers. The study consisted of one hundred patients with cancer experiencing cachexia.  Certain factors like weight loss, fist grip strength, SMI, testosterone, IGF-1, IL-6, TNF-α, CRP, myoglobin, CTCs, and miR-206 were analyzed.  To check how cachexia is related to the other examined factors and classify its severity, correlation matrices, subgroup analysis, and visual representations were used.  Most often, doctors diagnosed patients with colorectal cancer, after which pancreatic, stomach, and lung cancer were found.  It was common for patients to lose 8% of their weight, and the loss was even greater for people with gastric or pancreatic tumours.  Both CRP and IL-6 showed particularly high inflammatory markers in everybody in the group.  Patients who lost a lot of weight had CTC levels that were higher.  The relationship between IL-6 and CRP was positive, yet miR-206 correlated with worse muscle mass/function.  Those subgroups whose brains displayed the highest rates of biomarker changes were those with SMI <30 cm²/m² and >10% weight reduction.  The study found that miR-206, IL-6, and CRP were reliable biomarkers for spotting and evaluating muscle loss in cancer cachexia.  Data from these findings support testing in routine clinical practice and applying biopsy and molecular profiling to therapy for cachexia.