Muscle and cancer: a bidirectional relationship. Pathophysiology and consequences
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.35366/112699Keywords:
sarcopenia, cancer, mortality, survival, chemotherapy, radiotherapyAbstract
The muscle has very important interrelationships with other organs such as the heart, liver, brain
and adipose tissue. Its wear, known as sarcopenia, has been associated with different types of
cancer during treatment, which causes an increase in toxicity derived from both, chemotherapy and
radiotherapy. This causes treatment delays and unwanted dose adjustments that negatively impact
the survival of cancer patients. There is evidence that suggests that sarcopenia persists even in
the survival stage, conditioning a negative impact on the quality of life of patients and on their work
productivity. Different physiopathological mechanisms at the cellular and molecular level involved in
sarcopenia in cancer are known, which increasingly show a bidirectional relationship, both positive
and negative, between cancer and muscle.
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