Resistance training and protein for cachexia and sarcopenia
Lifting weights and eating enough protein is the only treatment shown to build muscle in people with cancer wasting, but most are too unwell to do it alone and the trials are small.
Skeletal muscle in cachexia remains anabolically responsive if enough protein (1.2-1.5 g/kg/day, ESPEN 2021) and mechanical loading are provided. Small randomised trials and the multimodal MENAC feasibility trial (exercise, nutrition, NSAID) show preserved or increased lean mass and function, but no adequately powered trial has yet shown that exercise prolongs survival or reverses established refractory cachexia. Adherence is the constraint: the patients who most need it are the least able to attend. Combination with appetite or anti-GDF-15 drugs is the rational next step and is being planned.
How it works
Progressive resistance exercise activates mTOR-dependent muscle protein synthesis and blunts the ubiquitin-proteasome degradation driven by inflammatory cytokines; protein and leucine supply the substrate.
- Only intervention that directly rebuilds muscle
- Cheap and combinable with drugs
- Improves function, the endpoint patients value
- Feasibility falls as cachexia advances
- No survival data
- Dose, timing and supervision unstandardised
Latest papers
topQuery for this technology: (TITLE:"Resistance training and protein for cachexia and sarcopenia" OR ABSTRACT:"Resistance training and protein for cachexia and sarcopenia") AND (cancer OR tumor OR tumour OR oncology OR carcinoma OR lymphoma OR leukemia OR leukaemia OR myeloma OR sarcoma OR melanoma OR glioma). Results are unfiltered search hits about Resistance training and protein for cachexia and sarcopenia, not a curated reading list.
Pages like this
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