Treatment of cachexia: An overview of recent developments

Body wasting in the context of chronic illness is associated with reduced quality of life and impaired survival. Recent clinical trials have investigated different approaches to improve patients' skeletal muscle mass and strength, exercise capacity, and survival in the context of cachexia and body wasting, many of them in patients with cancer. The aim of this article is to summarise clinical trials published over the last two years. Therapeutic approaches discussed here include appetite stimulants like megestrol acetate, L-carnitine, or melatonin, anti-inflammatory drugs like thalidomide, pentoxyphylline, or a monoclonal antibody against interleukin-1 alpha as well as ghrelin and the ghrelin agonist anamorelin, nutritional support, and anabolics like enobosarm and testosterone. (C) 2014 Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd.