Therapeutic interferes with the pathway that causes
cachexia in cancer and other diseases.
Cachexia — the massive (up to 80%) loss of both
adipose tissue and skeletal muscle mass — is a
significant factor in the poor performance status
and high mortality rate of cancer patients.
Although this metabolic defect has been known since
cancer was first studied, it is only recently that
major advances have been made in the identification
of catabolic factors that act to destroy host
tissues during the cachectic process. Although
anorexia is frequently present, depression of food
intake alone seems not to be responsible for the
wasting of body tissues, as nutritional
supplementation or pharmacological manipulation of
appetite is unable to reverse the catabolic process
— particularly with respect to skeletal muscle.
Cachexia Market
Cachexia is a particularly serious problem for over
100,000 patients in the United States who exhibit
hypercatabolic-cachexia associated with advanced
solid-tumor cancer. Currently there are no FDA
approved drugs for the treatment of cancer cachexia.
It is estimated that the size of this market in the
US exceeds $1 billion for all stages of cachexia and
exceeds $250 million for hypercatabolic-cachexia
associated with severe inflammation and advanced
cancer.
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