Dissecting the importance and origin of circulating myokines in gastric cancer cachexia

BackgroundSome experimental data suggest that myokines may play an important role in developing cancer-associated cachexia (CAC), but their relevance in humans remains poorly explored. In our study, we tested the hypothesis that circulating myokines are associated with the pathogenesis of CAC in a model population of gastric cancer.MethodsA group of 171 treatment naïve patients with adenocarcinoma of the stomach were prospectively examined. Cachexia was defined as weight loss >5% or weight loss >2% with either BMI