Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2019 Feb 4;21(2):15.
doi: 10.1007/s11912-019-0765-7.

Communicating with Adolescents and Young Adults about Cancer-Associated Weight Loss

Joanne Reid  1 , Clare McKeaveney  2 , Peter Martin  3
Affiliations
Review

Communicating with Adolescents and Young Adults about Cancer-Associated Weight Loss

Joanne Reid et al. Curr Oncol Rep. .

Abstract

Purpose of review: Over the past two decades, advances have been made in understanding the pathophysiology of cancer-associated weight loss, termed "cachexia." To date, there is no proven effective intervention to completely reverse cachexia and there are no approved drug therapies to treat it. This paper will review relevant literature in relation to communicating with adolescents and young adults about cancer-associated weight loss.

Recent findings: Adolescents and young adults (AYAs) who have cancer are a unique group of patients due to their stage of development and maturity. This article outlines issues specific to this patient cohort that need to be considered to better understand the impact of cachexia and explore pertinent matters when communicating with AYAs in relation to cachexia.

Keywords: Adolescents and young adults; Cachexia; Cancer-associated weight loss.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Human and Animal Rights and Informed Consent

This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Stages of cachexia. Reprinted from The Lancet Oncology, Volume 12, Fearon K, et al., “Definition and classification of cancer cachexia: an international consensus,” pages 489–95, ©2011, with permission from Elsevier
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Fearon K, Strasser F, Anker SD, Bosaeus I, Bruera E, Fainsinger RL, Jatoi A, Loprinzi C, MacDonald N, Mantovani G, Davis M. Definition and classification of cancer cachexia: an international consensus. Lancet Oncol. 2011;12(5):489–495. - PubMed
    1. Maddocks M, Hopkinson J, Conibear J, Reeves A, Shaw C, Fearon KC. Practical multimodal care for cancer cachexia. Curr Opin Support Palliat Care. 2016;10(4):298. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Thomas DM, Albritton KH, Ferrari A. Adolescent and young adult oncology: an emerging field. J Clin Oncol. 2010;28(32):4781–4782. - PubMed
    1. Sodergren SC, Husson O, Robinson J, Rohde GE, Tomaszewska IM, Vivat B, Dyar R, Darlington AS, EORTC Quality of Life Group Systematic review of the health-related quality of life issues facing adolescents and young adults with cancer. Qual Life Res. 2017;26(7):1659–1672. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Stern M, Krivoy E, Foster RH, Bitsko M, Toren A, Ben-Arush M. Psychosocial functioning and career decision-making in Israeli adolescent and young adult cancer survivors. Pediatr Blood Cancer. 2010;55(4):708–713. - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources