Pfizer drug shows promising effect on disease that causes weight loss and weakness

BARCELONA, Spain — Patients with advanced cancer often develop a secondary condition that causes weight loss, making cancer treatment even more difficult to tolerate. So-called cachexia syndrome is an underestimated syndrome that researchers are still trying to decipher and that is increasingly attracting interest from pharmaceutical companies.

On Saturday, Pfizer reported that an experimental antibody not only helped cancer patients with cachexia gain some weight compared with a placebo, but it also appeared to increase their muscle mass and activity levels, suggesting the extra weight translated into meaningful benefits.

“The weight gain compared to patients receiving a placebo is very important. But it is also very important to show the impact of that weight gain on the well-being of patients. And that is exactly what we are aiming to do,” Charlotte Allerton, head of discovery and early development at Pfizer, told STAT.