부산대학교 도서관

Simple Summary: Sarcopenia is a serious clinical condition experienced by many oncology patients as a disease and/or treatment-related adverse event that threatens their quality of life and survival. However, the assessment of body composition has not been incorporated into daily clinical practice and sarcopenia is either underdiagnosed or diagnosed at an advanced stage. Physical exercise offers significant benefits against sarcopenia, in terms of both prevention and treatment. In this review, the ways of assessing sarcopenia and sarcopenic obesity, their prognostic value, and their relation to the toxicity of the anticancer treatments are discussed. We also describe mechanisms by which exercise can counteract sarcopenia, and the potential role of myokines in the preservation of muscle mass. One of the most common adverse effects of cancer and its therapeutic strategies is sarcopenia, a condition which is characterised by excess muscle wasting and muscle strength loss due to the disrupted muscle homeostasis. Moreover, cancer-related sarcopenia may be combined with the increased deposition of fat mass, a syndrome called cancer-associated sarcopenic obesity. Both clinical conditions have significant clinical importance and can predict disease progression and survival. A growing body of evidence supports the claim that physical exercise is a safe and effective complementary therapy for oncology patients which can limit the cancer- and its treatment-related muscle catabolism and promote the maintenance of muscle mass. Moreover, even after the onset of sarcopenia, exercise interventions can counterbalance the muscle mass loss and improve the clinical appearance and quality of life of cancer patients. The aim of this narrative review was to describe the various pathophysiological mechanisms, such as protein synthesis, mitochondrial function, inflammatory response, and the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis, which are regulated by exercise and contribute to the management of sarcopenia and sarcopenic obesity. Moreover, myokines, factors produced by and released from exercising muscles, are being discussed as they appear to play an important role in mediating the beneficial effects of exercise against sarcopenia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]