The treatment interventions and targets of cancer cachexia research during the past decade: a systematic review of the literature

Abstract

Background Cachexia is a detrimental multifactorial syndrome that has been strongly associated with cancer. A growing body of data concerning its management is being generated from the ongoing advances of experimental cancer cachexia research. This study aimed to delineate the broad landscape of cancer cachexia research, by comprehensively presenting the treatment interventions and targets of cancer cachexia during the past decade.

Methods A systematic literature search was performed in Medline and Scopus databases from January to April 2023. Articles were considered eligible if they described any type of intervention in tumor-bearing rodents to study the effect on prevention or treatment of cancer cachexia. The corresponding signaling and metabolic pathways that were targeted by these interventions were documented.

Results A total of 271 articles were considered eligible for our study. Of these, 176 studies pertained to pharmaceutical interventions with 100 corresponding targets, 58 studies pertained to nutritional interventions with 60 corresponding targets, and 37 studies pertained to exercise interventions with 60 corresponding targets.

Conclusions The continuous evolution of cancer cachexia research has provided a plethora of disease targets and corresponding treatment interventions. Moving forward, the available management strategies should be refined and clinical research should efficiently capitalize on the robust experimental evidence.

Keywords Cancer, cachexia, treatment, mechanism, pathway

Ann Gastroenterol 2025; 38 (1): 85-92