Novel treatment approaches to cachexia and sarcopenia: highlights from the 5th Cachexia Conference.

Cachexia is an illness that may occur in terminal stages of many chronic illnesses including cancer, chronic heart failure, chronic renal failure or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Effective treatments are urgently needed in order to improve the patients' quality of life and their survival. We report highlights from the 5th Cachexia Conference held in December 2009 in Barcelona, Spain. Novel therapeutic approaches shown here include melanocortin-4 receptor antagonists, myostatin inhibition, beta-blockers, IL-6 antagonism synthetic ghrelin and vitamin D.