Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • News & Views
  • Published:

CANCER

Tumour-regulated anorexia preceding cachexia

Anorexia commonly develops in patients with advanced cancer and is closely associated with cachexia. A new study shows that anorexia emerges earlier than cachexia in both Drosophila and mouse tumour models and that tumour-derived humoral factors induce anorexia by systemically dysregulating neuropeptides in the brain.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: Schematic illustration depicting the systemic effects of cancer.
Fig. 2: Cancer-induced dysregulation of neuropeptides promotes anorexia, which is initiated prior to and independent of cachexia onset.

References

  1. Schmidt, S. F., Rohm, M., Herzig, S. & Berriel Diaz, M. Trends Cancer 4, 849–860 (2018).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Fearon, K. et al. Lancet Oncol. 12, 489–495 (2011).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Inui, A. CA Cancer J. Clin. 52, 72–91 (2002).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Kwon, Y. et al. Dev. Cell 33, 36–46 (2015).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Figueroa-Clarevega, A. & Bilder, D. Dev. Cell 33, 47–55 (2015).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Wang, G. et al. Nat. Med. 24, 770–781 (2018).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Yeom, E. et al. Nat. Cell Biol. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41556-020-00628-z (2021).

  8. Vallejo, D. M., Juarez-Carreño, S., Bolivar, J., Morante, J. & Dominguez, M. Science 350, aac6767 (2015).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Schwartz, M. W., Woods, S. C., Porte, D. Jr., Seeley, R. J. & Baskin, D. G. Nature 404, 661–671 (2000).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Zhang, H. et al. Nat. Cell Biol. 20, 332–343 (2018).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Peinado, H. et al. Nat. Med. 18, 883–891 (2012).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  12. Anker, M. S. et al. J. Cachexia Sarcopenia Muscle 10, 22–34 (2019).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Ezeoke, C. C. & Morley, J. E. J. Cachexia Sarcopenia Muscle 6, 287–302 (2015).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Argilés, J. M., Busquets, S., Stemmler, B. & López-Soriano, F. J. Curr. Opin. Pharmacol. 22, 100–106 (2015).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Peinado, H. et al. Nat. Rev. Cancer 17, 302–317 (2017).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Haiying Zhang or David Lyden.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Wang, G., Zhang, H. & Lyden, D. Tumour-regulated anorexia preceding cachexia. Nat Cell Biol 23, 111–113 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41556-021-00635-8

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41556-021-00635-8

This article is cited by

Search

Quick links

Nature Briefing: Cancer

Sign up for the Nature Briefing: Cancer newsletter — what matters in cancer research, free to your inbox weekly.

Get what matters in cancer research, free to your inbox weekly. Sign up for Nature Briefing: Cancer