PhD Defence Yan Sun

Keywords: Cancer cachexia, body composition, tumor metabolic activity, radiology
 

"Body Composition In Cancer Cachexia"

This thesis investigates the association of body composition (muscle and fat) with several clinical outcomes in patients with cancer cachexia. Cancer cachexia is a multifactorial syndrome that affects approximately 50-80% of all cancer patients and causes approximately 20% of all cancer deaths. It is characterized by significant weight loss, primarily due to loss of muscle tissue with or without fat, systemic inflammation, and anorexia. Identifying patients with cachexia can be challenging because some patients do not have significant weight loss at presentation. CT scan-based body composition assessment can quantify skeletal muscle and adipose tissue and is able to detect cachexia-related features. PET-CT is a hybrid imaging technique that integrates PET and CT to obtain both tumor metabolic activity data and patient body composition, providing new insights into the association between tumor metabolic activity and cachexia in cancer patients.    

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