A team of scientists from the National Cancer Research Center (CNIO) has discovered through a study with mice, the cause of a third of the deaths of cancer patients: cachexia , a syndrome that causes extreme thinness and also weakness.
By studying indirect cancer attack pathways in the rest of the body, the researchers discovered that the process by which white fat tissue (the "bad" energy-storing fat) is turned brown (the "good" fat, which burns to produce heat), is the cause of death for 30% of cancer patients .
“It is the first time that this phenomenon that we could call 'fat burning' has been associated with a negative effect; it has potential positive effects against obesity and diabetes but also very pernicious consequences in the context of cancer ”, states Michele Petruzzelli, leader of the study.
The result of the study, which has been published in the journal Cell Metabolism , suggests that anti-inflammatories could help fight cachexia and “allows us to think about the possibility of identifying biomarkers that help us predict which patients will develop cachexia, so that we can treat them preventively ”, clarifies Petruzzelli.
