Circulating Levels of B-cell Activating Factor in Paediatric Patients with Malignancy With or without Cancer-Related Cachexia
| Authors | |
|---|---|
| Year of publication | 2012 |
| Type | Article in Periodical |
| Magazine / Source | Klinická onkologie |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Field | Oncology and hematology |
| Keywords | B cell-activating factor; cachexia; cancer; paediatrics |
| Attached files | |
| Description | Cancer-related cachexia is a multifactorial syndrome characterised by progressive loss of body weight and it affects a large proportion of patients with advanced cancer. Cachexia is associated with reduced treatment tolerance, response to therapy, quality of life and duration of survival, whereas some of its mechanisms are shared across the whole continuum of diseases in the population, either cancer-related or non-cancer related e.g. systemic inflammation, increased lipolysis, insulin resistance and reduced physical performance. However, so far there has been only little effort to utilise the integrative physiology of adipose tissue to achieve therapeutic gain. B cell-activating factor (BAFF) is a novel member of the TNF ligand superfamily, is mainly produced by myeloid cells and has recently been shown to participate in B-cell survival and B- and T-cell maturation, but also in adipogenesis. Therefore, it represents an elegant candidate molecule linking the immune system and adipose tissue metabolism, both being involved deeply in the pathogenesis of cachexia. Moreover, it has been described very recently that BAFF directly influences secretion of IL-6 and IL-10. |