Prognosis in Gastrointestinal Cancer

Background Cancer cachexia (CC) is linked to poor prognosis. Although the mechanisms promoting this condition are not known, several circulating proteins have been proposed to contribute. We analyzed the plasma proteome in cancer subjects in order to identify factors associated with cachexia. Design/Subjects Plasma was obtained from a screening cohort of 59 patients, newly diagnosed with sus-pected gastrointestinal cancer, with (n = 32) or without (n = 27) cachexia. Samples were subjected to proteomic profiling using 760 antibodies (targeting 698 individual proteins) from the Human Protein Atlas project. The main findings were validated in a cohort of 93 pa-tients with verified and advanced pancreas cancer. Results Only six proteins displayed differential plasma levels in the screening cohort. Among these, Carnosine Dipeptidase 1 (CNDP1) was confirmed by sandwich immunoassay to be lower i