A trial looking at a combination of treatments for weight and muscle loss in people with advanced cancer (MENAC)

Cancer type:

Lung cancer

Non small cell lung cancer

Pancreatic cancer

Status:

Results

Phase:

Phase 3

This trial was for people with advanced cancer who were going to have chemotherapy or other cancer treatment, and who had cachexia Open a glossary item .

The trial was open for people to join between 2015 and 2022. The team presented the results at a conference in 2024. They plan to publish the results in 2025.

More about this trial

In this trial researchers were looking at possible treatments for a condition called cachexia in people with advanced cancer Open a glossary item . Cachexia is a complex change in the body, causing you to lose weight despite eating normally.

People taking part had one of the following cancers:

Their cancer was either stage 3 or 4. Stage 3 usually means the cancer has spread into surrounding tissues or lymph nodes. Stage 4 means the cancer has spread to another part of the body.

They all had chemotherapy or other cancer treatment.

This was a phase 3 trial. People taking part were put into one of 2 groups at random:

half had advice on diet and exercise, took nutritional supplements containing fish oil and non steroidal anti inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs)
half had standard care

The research team assessed people’s weight, muscle mass and activity level:

when they joined the trial
6 weeks later

The main aims of the trial were to find out if these treatments can help:

stop weight loss
keep muscle mass
improve physical activity levels

Summary of results

The research team found that having a combination of treatments for cachexia helped to stop weight loss. It did not help with keeping muscle mass or improving physical activity.

Results
A total of 212 people took part in this trial. They were put into 1 of 2 groups at random. There were:

105 in the group having a combination of treatments for cachexia
107 in the group having standard care

The researchers looked at the average changes in weight over 6 weeks. They called it the mean weight change. They found that:

people in the treatment group gained 0.05kg (0.1lb)
people in the standard care group lost 0.99kg (2.2lb)

They also looked at how much muscle people lost or gained on average over 6 weeks. They found that people in both groups lost a small amount of muscle mass.

The researchers looked at people’s average step count to see whether their physical activity level had changed. They found that it was similar in the two groups:

people in the treatment group did 378 fewer steps
people in the standard care group did 458 fewer steps

The people taking part didn’t have any side effects related to the treatment.

Conclusion
The trial team concluded that having a combination of treatments for cachexia helped to stop weight loss. But, there was no difference in the change in muscle mass or physical activity between the two groups.

More detailed information
There is more information about this research in the reference below.

Please note, the information we link to here is not in plain English. It has been written for healthcare professionals and researchers.

Results from a randomised, open-label trial of a multimodal intervention (exercise, nutrition and anti-inflammatory medication) plus standard care versus standard care alone to attenuate cachexia in patients with advanced cancer undergoing chemotherapy.
T Solheim and others
Journal of Clinical Oncology, 2024. Volume 42, issue 17.

Where this information comes from
We have based this summary on the information in the abstract above. This has been reviewed by independent specialists (peer reviewed Open a glossary item ) and published in a medical journal. We have not analysed the data ourselves. As far as we are aware, the link we list above is active, and the abstract is free and available to view.