Cachexia

Cachexia
Other names	Wasting syndrome
Patient with cancer-associated cachexia
Specialty	Oncology, Internal Medicine, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation
Symptoms	sudden weight loss, altered eating signals
Prognosis	very poor
Frequency	1%
Deaths	1.5 to 2 million people a year

Cachexia (/kəˈkɛksiə/^[1]) is a complex syndrome associated with an underlying illness, causing ongoing muscle loss that is not entirely reversed with nutritional supplementation. A range of diseases can cause cachexia, most commonly cancer, congestive heart failure, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, chronic kidney disease, and AIDS. Systemic inflammation from these conditions can cause detrimental changes to metabolism and body composition. In contrast to weight loss from inadequate caloric intake, cachexia causes mostly muscle loss instead of fat loss. Diagnosis of cachexia can be difficult due to the lack of well-established diagnostic criteria. Cachexia can improve with treatment of the underlying illness but other treatment approaches have limited benefit. Cachexia is associated with increased mortality and poor quality of life.

The term is from Greek κακός kakos 'bad' and ἕξις hexis 'condition'.