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Weight Loss Due to Advanced Cancer

Weight loss is a common symptom of many types of cancer. As the disease spreads, factors combine to make it more difficult to maintain your normal weight. Understanding the mechanisms behind weight loss and cancer can help you mentally steel yourself to minimize the affect of this symptom on your treatment.

  1. Cancer

    • Cancer is a condition whereby your immune system fails to detect and destroy abnormal cell structures within an area of your body. While cells mutate fairly regularly, they are almost always noticed and targeted for elimination within a reasonable amount of time. Where the body fails to take this preventive step, the mutant cells begin to reproduce uncontrollably, eventually resulting in the death of the host.

    Advanced Cancer

    • As cancer progresses, it eventually crosses the invisible line in the sand into the realm of advanced cancer. According to the National Cancer Institute, advanced cancer is where the cancer has spread throughout the body into the lymph node system or where regular methods of treatment have failed to produce the intended result. Once into advanced cancer, the goal of treatment becomes a game of delaying the further spread of cancer instead of aiming for a remission.

    Weight Loss

    • Unexpected or unexplainable weight loss is a common symptom of advanced cancer. Any weight loss of 10 or more pounds should be immediately reported to your doctor so that he can take appropriate action to curb further weight loss before it spirals out of control. According to the website SupportiveOncology, inability to maintain a healthy weight shortens life expectancy significantly.

    Weight Loss Rationale

    • According to Continuum Cancer Centers, two general reasons are behind the weight loss seen in advanced cancer patients. First, cancer (and the various treatment regimes) acts to curb appetite, making it so the patient does not want to eat. Second, cancer acts to impair the body's ability to properly absorb and use nutrients, making the food that is consumed less effective at sustaining the body.

    Treating Weight Loss

    • Weight loss can be mitigated through the use of specific nutritional techniques and prescription medications. These medications are generally divided into two categories--appetite stimulants and anabolic steroids. The appetite stimulants facilitate the desire to eat, whereas the anabolic steroids provide a physiological environment that is conducive to adding mass.

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