Background: Cachexia is an irreversible multifactorial process. One of the
most important indicators of nutritional status and a prognostic biomarker in
cancer cachectic patients is serum albumin level, its reduction is associated with
poor prognosis, we aimed to see effect of improvement over time in albumin on
survival and the most independent factors for survival with the contributions of
different clinic pathologic parameters to different cachexia parameters.
Methods: a prospective observational single center study. 125 patients were
enrolled after their diagnosis as cachectic patients. We collected demographic
data, type of nutritional support, anthropometric measures and laboratory data
are collected every 3 months for 1 year.
Results: There was significant improvement of total protein and albumin and no
significant improvement of body mass index across different time points of
measurements despite increasing the percentages of patients attaining normal
BMI. Surviving patients completing one year expressed significant
improvement of oral intake. The mean OS was 6.4 months, and the median OS
was 5 months. OS was positively correlated with serum albumin level. Only
age, BMI, NLR, and PLR had significant effect on OS.
Conclusion: Improvement of albumin with progression of time in patients who
received their anticancer treatment had significant positive effect on overall
survival of cancer cachectic patients.