Onderzoek naar (signaalstoffen van) de voedingstoestand bij patienten met een tumor in de long, borst, prostaat of dikke darm.

Cachexia is a frequently observed syndrome in cancer patients. It reversely impacts quality of life and is linearly and prognostically related to clinical outcome but cannot be fully reversed by conventional nutritional therapy. In contrast to cachexia, pre-cachexia is expected to be a still reversible state that may respond to nutritional intervention. Recently, an expert-opinion of pre-cachexia has been put forward that can be used for the early identification, and subsequently for the early treatment, of pre-cachexia. The current proposal aims to study the prevalence of pre-cachexia and cachexia, to identify patient groups at increased risk and to explore potential biomarkers of pre-cachexia.

Cachexia is a frequently observed syndrome in cancer patients. It reversely impacts quality of life and is linearly and prognostically related to clinical outcome but cannot be fully reversed by conventional nutritional therapy. In contrast to cachexia, pre-cachexia is expected to be a still reversible state that may respond to nutritional intervention. Recently, an expert-opinion of pre-cachexia has been put forward that can be used for the early identification, and subsequently for the early treatment, of pre-cachexia. The current proposal aims to study the prevalence of pre-cachexia and cachexia, to identify patient groups at increased risk and to explore potential biomarkers of pre-cachexia.

Cross-sectional design (try for 2 measurements with one week in between).

Two interviews of at maximum 30 minutes (with one week in between), including 3 small self-administered questionnaires, 2 VAS-scales and a measurement of body composition. In addition, 60 patients with stage III/IV non-small cell lung cancer are asked for extra blood collection during (two tubes) routinely collected blood in fasted state to identify potential biomarkers of pre-cachexia and cachexia.