Researchers find cancer weight loss cause

Australian researchers say they have identified why patients with advanced cancer lose weight - and it isn't the cancer itself.

Treating cachexia should also be possible after a decade-long study showed a receptor common in cancer cells was a leading cause of the disease.

Cachexia - weakness and wasting of the body due to severe chronic illness - affects most cancer patients and is a factor in up to 30 per cent of all cancer deaths.

It was long thought weight loss in cancer patients was caused by the cancer spreading around the body or a loss of appetite.

But Australia-led research, published in the journal Cell on Friday, has identified cell receptor Fn14 as a leading cause of cachexia.

By blocking Fn14, researchers found the cachexia stopped, regardless of the size of the tumour.

"We are currently converting the antibody therapy into a treatment appropriate to trial in humans," said lead researcher Dr Amelia Johnston from Melbourne's La Trobe University.

Dr Johnston says because antibodies are specific to their target, the treatment is less likely to come with the unwanted side effects that come with other cancer treatments, such as many chemotherapy drugs.