RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN WEIGHT-LOSS, REDUCTION OF BODY CELL MASS AND INFLAMMATORY RESPONSE IN PATIENTS WITH CANCER

Reduced food intake is a major cause of continuing weight loss in pati ents with cancer. Previous work has suggested that an ongoing inflamma tory response may also contribute to weight loss and alter the nature of body tissue loss. To examine this, body cell mass was estimated usi ng measurements of total body potassium (TBK) in 31 patients with gast rointestinal cancer and weight loss with or without an inflammatory re sponse (C-reactive protein level above 5 mg/l). Albumin levels, total body water and 24-h urinary creatinine clearance were also measured. W hen measured TBK was expressed as a percentage of predicted normal val ues there was a significant reduction in TBK for patients with an infl ammatory response compared with that of those without (P = 0.04). Howe ver, when a different prediction equation for TBK was used this differ ence was not significant (P = 0.29). Therefore, it remains uncertain w hether an ongoing inflammatory response in patients with cancer and we ight loss contributes to loss of body cell mass.