Control of food intake in cancer cachexia: A challenge and a tool

The immediate cause of cachectic depletion of the cancerous host is progressive failure of spontaneous food intake to meet the nutrient needs of host and tumor. This implies breakdown in control of feeding. Existing information on this breakdown and the extent to which studies of the cachectic syndrome might throw light on normal control of feeding are reviewed. The components of control that break down appear to be those not mediated by the hypothalamus. The cancer cachectic organism thus offers a potential animal model for extra-hypothalamic controls of feeding and for the interaction between hypothalamic and extra-hypothalamic controls.