Study: 'Energy' Molecule May Help Cancer Patients

Link to  1999 abstract   Link to this Feb. 16, 2000 citation

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Giving cancer patients a compound that provides energy in the body could help prevent the muscle loss and weakness that make life miserable and sometimes prove fatal, researchers said Tuesday.

They said an infusion of ATP (adenosine 5-triphosphate) stopped weight loss and improved the quality of life in patients with advanced lung cancer.

The study was small and the differences were not enormous, but they said ATP worked better than many other drugs to keep patients from wasting away.

"ATP has beneficial effects on weight, muscle strength and quality of life in patients with advanced non small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC)," Peter Dagnelie of Maastricht University in the Netherlands and colleagues wrote in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

ATP has been characterized as a key energy source for all cells. It is also a neurotransmitter, or message-carrying chemical, helps control muscle contraction, and helps the liver metabolize glucose.

Patients with cancer often suffer from weight loss, bone loss and muscle weakness, and this condition, known as cachexia, can kill them. "Dietary counseling and the use of enteral supplements have failed to reverse weight loss," Dagnelie and colleagues wrote. "Drugs, including corticosteroids, cyproheptadine, hydrazine sulphate, pentoxifylline and anabolic steroids were also shown to be ineffective."

They gave ATP to 28 patients with late-stage NSCLC and compared them with 30 patients who did not get ATP.

Patients who did not get ATP lost an average of 1 kg (2.2 pounds) every four weeks or 6.5 kg (14 pounds) over six months, while the ATP group kept a stable weight.

"In our study, control patients lost approximately one third of their muscle strength in both arms and legs over a six-month period, whereas ATP-treated patients lost no muscle strength," they wrote.

"The quality of life of the patients in the control group deteriorated significantly both at the physical and functional levels, whereas these domains remained practically unchanged in patients in the ATP group."

They said ATP was easy to give as an infusion and had no immediate side-effects and said it was worth doing more studies.

"Are these results definitive?" asked Dr. Richard Goldberg and colleagues at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. "We agree with the authors that they are not."

They wrote in a commentary that the weight differences were not hugely significant and that the change in quality of life was small.

But they also said the idea merited further studies.

http://news.excite.com/news/r/000215/17/science-health-cancer-atp