Muscle wasting similar in cancer and MD

COLUMBUS, Ohio, Nov 14, 2005 (UPI via COMTEX) -- Ohio State University scientists say a wasting condition causing nearly a third of all cancer deaths is similar to that in muscular dystrophy patients.

The research shows muscle cells lose significant amounts of the protein dystrophin during cancer wasting, and that subtle changes occur in two other proteins associated with dystrophin in the membrane of muscle cells. These proteins form the dystrophin glycoprotein complex. Dystrophin and DGC are also lost in Duchenne muscular dystrophy.

"The loss of dystrophin and damage to the DGC appear to be key players in the development of both cancer wasting and muscular dystrophy," said principal investigator Denis Guttridge, assistant professor of molecular virology, immunology and cancer genetics. But he said muscle cell damage seen in cancer cachexia is not as severe as that seen in muscular dystrophy.

Cancer wasting occurs most often in esophageal, stomach, colorectal, pancreatic, lung, and head and neck cancers. Cancer patients who develop wasting usually respond more poorly to therapy and have a shorter life span and lower quality of life.

The research appears in the November issue of the journal Cancer Cell.

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