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Dose-dependent effect of megestrol acetate supplementation in cancer patients with anorexia-cachexia syndrome: A meta-analysis.

Sepide Talebi | Sheida Zeraattalab-Motlagh | Maryam Barkhordar | Mohammad Vaezi | Seyed Mojtaba Ghoreishy | Abed Ghavami | Yasaman Hosseini | Nikolaj Travica | Hamed Mohammadi
Journal of cachexia, sarcopenia and muscle | 2024

There is inconsistent evidence relating to the effects of megestrol acetate (MA) supplementation on cancer patients suffering from anorexia-cachexia syndrome. This review aimed to examine the dose-response effect of MA supplementation in patients with cancer-associated anorexia/cachexia. Relevant keywords were searched in PubMed, Scopus and ISI Web of Science from inception to June 2023 for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) examining the effect of MA on pathologies in patients with cancer-associated cachexia. Our primary outcomes were changes in body weight and appetite. However, fatigue and quality of life were secondary outcomes. The mean difference (MD) and 95% confidence interval (95% CI) were estimated using the random-effects method. Thirteen trials comprising 1229 participants (mean age 60 years) were identified. The results of our highest versus lowest analysis revealed that MA supplementation was not associated with any increase in body weight (MD: 0.64 kg, 95% CI [-0.11, 1.38], P = 0.093, I2 = 69.1%; GRADE = very low certainty). Twelve trials, including 14 effect sizes derived from 1369 patients (intervention = 689, control = 680), provided data on the effect of MA on body weight. Subgroup analyses showed a significant increase in body weight following short-term intervention (≤8 weeks) and a combination of radiation/chemotherapy as concurrent treatment. A linear dose-response meta-analysis indicated that each 200 mg/day increment in MA consumption had a significant increase in weight gain (MD: 0.44; 95% CI [0.13, 0.74], P = 0.005; I2 = 97.1%); however, the magnitude of the effect was small. MA administration significantly affected the quality of life based on pooled effect sizes (MD: 1.15, 95% CI [0.76, 1.54], P < 0.001, I2 = 0%; n = 2 RCTs including 176 patients; GRADE = very low certainty). However, no significant effect of MA supplementation was observed on appetite (MD: 0.29, 95% CI [-0.05, 0.64], P = 0.096, I2 = 18.3%; n = 3 RCTs including 163 patients; GRADE = very low certainty) and fatigue (MD: 0.14, 95% CI [-0.09, 0.36], P = 0.236, I2 = 0%; n = 2 RCTs including 300 patients; GRADE = very low certainty). With very low certainty of the evidence, MA supplementation may not lead to a significantly increased weight gain and other outcomes.

Pubmed ID: 39031821

Research resources used in this publication

None found

Antibodies used in this publication

None found

Associated grants

  • Agency: Haematology-Oncology and Stem Cell Transplantation Research Center of Tehran University of Medical Sciences,
    Id: 62676

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ClinicalTrials.gov (tool)

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Registry and results database of federally and privately supported clinical trials conducted in United States and around world. Provides information about purpose of trial, who may participate, locations, and phone numbers for more details. This information should be used in conjunction with advice from health care professionals.Offers information for locating federally and privately supported clinical trials for wide range of diseases and conditions. Research study in human volunteers to answer specific health questions. Interventional trials determine whether experimental treatments or new ways of using known therapies are safe and effective under controlled environments. Observational trials address health issues in large groups of people or populations in natural settings. ClinicalTrials.gov contains trials sponsored by National Institutes of Health, other federal agencies, and private industry. Studies listed in database are conducted in all 50 States and in 178 countries.

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EORTC (tool)

RRID:SCR_004070

An independent pan-European clinical research organization to improve the standards of cancer care through the multidisciplinary multinational efforts of basic scientists and clinicians. The efforts include the testing of more effective therapeutic strategies based on drugs, surgery and/or radiotherapy that are already in use. They also contribute to the development of new drugs and other approaches in partnership with the pharmaceutical industry which is accomplished mainly by conducting large, multicenter, prospective, randomized, phase III clinical trials. The EORTC Network comprises over 300 hospitals and cancer centers in over 30 countries which include some 2,500 collaborators from all disciplines involved in cancer treatment and research. The EORTC Headquarters staff handle some 6,000 new patients enrolled each year in cancer clinical trials, approximately 30 protocols that are permanently open to patient entry, over 50,000 patients who are in follow-up, and a database of more than 180,000 patients. Intergroup collaboration is also promoted to face current challenges of clinical trials aiming at targeted therapies in order to recruit a large number of patients within a reasonable period of time.

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RRID:SCR_004750

A controlled vocabulary thesaurus that consists of sets of terms naming descriptors in a hierarchical structure that permits searching at various levels of specificity. MeSH, in machine-readable form, is provided at no charge via electronic means. MeSH descriptors are arranged in both an alphabetic and a hierarchical structure. At the most general level of the hierarchical structure are very broad headings such as Anatomy or Mental Disorders. More specific headings are found at more narrow levels of the twelve-level hierarchy, such as Ankle and Conduct Disorder. There are 27,149 descriptors in 2014 MeSH. There are also over 218,000 entry terms that assist in finding the most appropriate MeSH Heading, for example, Vitamin C is an entry term to Ascorbic Acid. In addition to these headings, there are more than 219,000 headings called Supplementary Concept Records (formerly Supplementary Chemical Records) within a separate thesaurus. The MeSH thesaurus is used by NLM for indexing articles from 5,400 of the world''''s leading biomedical journals for the MEDLINE/PubMED database. It is also used for the NLM-produced database that includes cataloging of books, documents, and audiovisuals acquired by the Library. Each bibliographic reference is associated with a set of MeSH terms that describe the content of the item. Similarly, search queries use MeSH vocabulary to find items on a desired topic.

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PubMed (tool)

RRID:SCR_004846

Public bibliographic database that provides access to citations for biomedical literature from MEDLINE, life science journals, and online books. Citations may include links to full-text content from PubMed Central and publisher web sites. PubMed citations and abstracts include fields of biomedicine and health, covering portions of life sciences, behavioral sciences, chemical sciences, and bioengineering. Provides access to additional relevant web sites and links to other NCBI molecular biology resources. Publishers of journals can submit their citations to NCBI and then provide access to full-text of articles at journal web sites using LinkOut.

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Stata (tool)

RRID:SCR_012763

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