Articles: cachexia-drug-therapy.
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Expert Opin Emerg Drugs · Mar 2012
EditorialEditorial update on emerging drugs for cancer cachexia.
Cancer cachexia is a multifactorial syndrome characterized by progressive skeletal muscle wasting and weakness. It affects most patients with advanced cancers, reduces quality of life and accounts for more than 20% of all cancer-related deaths. ⋯ However, the multifactorial pathogenesis indicates strongly that the most effective treatments will come from drug combination approaches. Drug treatments should ideally be combined with exercise training to maximize efficacy and ultimately reduce mortality and enhance the quality of life of patients with cancer cachexia.
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Cardiac cachexia as a terminal stage of chronic heart failure carries a devastating prognosis. This article focuses on novel insights into the pathophysiology and on new treatment approaches to cardiac cachexia. Drugs that have been used in preclinical and clinical studies that may also confer beneficial effects in cardiac cachexia include but are not limited to the type 4 melanocortin receptor antagonist SNT 207979, the appetite promoting synthetic ghrelin SUN11031, the soluble myostatin decoy receptor ActRIIB-Fc, the fast skeletal muscle troponin activating substance CK-2017357, the anti-catabolic/anabolic transforming agent MT-102, the anti-inflammatory agent celecoxib, and testosterone supplementation.