Effects of Essential Amino Acid Intake on Net Protein Synthesis in Weight-losing Non-small Cell Lung Cancer Patients

Texas A&M University

Status

Completed

Conditions

Non-small Cell Lung Cancer

Treatments

Dietary Supplement: Total AA vs EAA+LEU

Dietary Supplement: EAA+LEU vs total AA

Study type

Interventional

Funder types

Other

Identifiers

NCT01172314

112254

Details and patient eligibility

About

Weight loss commonly occurs in lung cancer patients, negatively influencing their quality of life, treatment response and survival. Gains in lean body mass are difficult to achieve in cancer unless specific metabolic abnormalities are targeted. It is our hypothesis that a nutritional supplement containing a high amount of essential amino acids will target the metabolic alterations of cancer patients. Preliminary research performed in our laboratory in elderly supports this hypothesis. We hypothesize that intake of an essential amino acid nutritional supplement will positively influence protein synthesis rate in advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients. Furthermore, insight in the underlying mechanism of the higher anabolic response of the essential amino acid supplement will be examined. This information will potentially enable us to formulate a supplement that is more effective than normal food intake, and that will reduce the need for muscle protein breakdown.

Full description

In this study, we will test the following hypothesis: A high-leucine essential amino acid mixture stimulates whole body protein synthesis (and in this way protein anabolism) to a larger extent than a regular balanced mixture of total (essential and non-essential) amino acids in NSCLC patients with and without recent weight loss. The principal endpoint will be the extent of stimulation of protein synthesis rate as this is the principal mechanism by which either amino acid or protein intake causes muscle anabolism. This project will provide important clinical information, based on novel fundamental basic knowledge on the process and the specific underlying mechanisms of muscle wasting in patients with NSCLC, and the role of EAA as a potential anabolic substrate. In this way, it will provide preliminary data for the development of nutritional strategies that will prevent or even stop this process of ongoing muscle loss in NSCLC.

Enrollment

41 patients

Sex

All

Ages

40+ years old

Volunteers

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

Recently diagnosed with Stage III (unresectable) or Stage IV lung cancer (only for the NSCLC group)
Ability to sign informed consent
Age 40 years and older

Exclusion criteria

Previous anti-cancer therapy (e.g. radiotherapy, chemotherapy) or surgery less than 4 weeks prior to the experiment.
Presence of fever within the last 3 days
Established diagnosis of Diabetes Mellitus
BMI > 35 kg/m2
Untreated metabolic diseases including hepatic or renal disorder
Presence of acute illness or metabolically unstable chronic illness
Use of long-term oral corticosteroids or short course of oral corticosteroids in the preceding month before enrollment
Diagnosis of moderate to severe chronic airflow limitation, defined as measured forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1) ≤ 70% of referen¬ce FEV1 (only for the healthy control group)
Use of supplements enriched with amino acids
Any other condition according to the PI or study physicians would interfere with proper conduct of the study / safety of the patient
Failure to give informed consent