title: Multimodal nutrition/anabolic therapy for wasting conditions.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Significant progress has been made in the field of defining and describing the pathophysiology of wasting conditions such as cachexia. The number of new promising drugs, nutritional therapy alternatives, and exercise/rehabilitation programs is increasing. The purpose of this review is to give an overview of recent clinical findings from intervention studies investigating multimodal anabolic therapies utilizing drug, nutritional, and/or exercise interventions in order to counteract wasting.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Anabolic agents such as ghrelin and selective androgen receptor modulators are under late-phase clinical testing and hold promise as new therapies, and their ability to mitigate weight loss and improve muscle mass and physical function is evaluated. In the past 2 years, eight new studies investigating interventions with anabolic potential in wasting have been published, among which three of these studies were multimodal.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Targeted anabolic therapies aiming to prevent or reverse wasting might involve a combination of anabolic pharmacologic drugs, nutrition, and physical exercise working concurrently to enhance muscle protein synthesis and reduce breakdown. Some anabolic pharmacological interventions demonstrate the potential to improve muscle mass, but the multimodal interventions seem in greater extent to also demonstrate improvement in physical function.
authors.affiliation: aEuropean Palliative Care Research Centre (PRC), Department of Cancer Research and Molecular Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) bCancer Clinic, St. Olavs Hospital, Trondheim University Hospital, Trondheim, Norway.
authors.forename: Trude Rakel
authors.initials: TR
authors.lastname: Balstad
authors.forename: Stein
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kaasa
authors.forename: Tora Skeidsvoll
authors.initials: TS
authors.lastname: Solheim
mesh_terms: D045930:Anabolic Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D002100:Cachexia / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000628:therapy; D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy; D015444:Exercise; D005081:Exercise Therapy; D054439:Ghrelin / Q000627:therapeutic use; D006801:Humans; D044623:Nutrition Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D011944:Receptors, Androgen / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D019282:Wasting Syndrome / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000628:therapy*
chemical_list: D045930:Anabolic Agents; D054439:Ghrelin; D011944:Receptors, Androgen