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REVIEW article
Front. Pharmacol.
Sec. Translational Pharmacology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fphar.2025.1519278
This article is part of the Research Topic Nutrition as a Pharmacological Approach to Metabolic Disorders and Ageing View all 5 articles
Muscle Loss in Cancer Cachexia: what is the basis for nutritional support?
Provisionally accepted
Jaline Faiad 
Márcia Fábia Andrade 
Gabriela Salim de Castro 
Marina Coelho 
Giovana Aquino 
Joyce Resende 
Marilia Seelaender *- Department of Surgery, Faculty of Medicine, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
Cancer cachexia (CC) is characterized by significant skeletal muscle wasting, and the condition contributes to diminished quality of life, while being associated with poorer response to oncological treatment and with reduced survival. Chronic inflammation plays a central role in driving CC progression, within a complex interplay favoring catabolism. Although cachexia cannot be fully reversed by conventional nutritional support, nutritional intervention shows promise for the prevention and treatment of the syndrome. Of special interest are nutrients with antioxidant and anti-inflammatory potential and those that activate pathways involved in muscle mass synthesis and/or in the inhibition of muscle wasting. Extensive research has been carried out on novel nutritional supplements' power to mitigate CC impact, and the mechanisms through which some nutrients or bioactive compounds exert beneficial effects on muscle mass are still not totally clear. Here, we discuss the most studied supplements and nutritional strategies for dealing with muscle loss in CC.
Keywords: Nutritional supplementation, Cancer cachexia, muscle wasting, chronic inflammation, protein synthesis
Received: 29 Oct 2024; Accepted: 27 Jan 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Faiad, Andrade, de Castro, Coelho, Aquino, Resende and Seelaender. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Marilia Seelaender, Department of Surgery, Faculty of Medicine, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
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