Trial reportThe Journal of clinical investigation2020
Neuromuscular junctions are stable in patients with cancer cachexia.
Trial report in The Journal of clinical investigation, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 47 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
47 citing papers in PubMed, 58 citations in OpenAlex.
- Muscle fibre denervation in ageing.Clinical science (London, England : 1979) · 2026Review
- Junctions in Jeopardy: the neuromuscular junction is a selective pathological target in Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease.Mammalian genome : official journal of the International Mammalian Genome Society · 2026Review
- Cancer cachexia: A tumor-driven disorder of whole-body homeostasis.Cancer cell · 2026Review
- Unacylated ghrelin counteracts mitochondrial dysfunction and neuromuscular junction disruption in cancer cachexia.American journal of physiology. Cell physiology · 2026Article
- Skeletal muscle methylome-transcriptome disruptions during the onset and progression of colorectal cancer-induced cachexia.American journal of physiology. Cell physiology · 2026Article
- Neuromuscular junction instability with inactivity: morphological and functional changes after 10 days of bed rest in older adults.The Journal of physiology · 2026Article
- Sarcopenia and Cachexia in Older Patients with Cancer: Pathophysiology, Diagnosis, Impact on Outcomes, and Management Strategies.Drugs & aging · 2025Review
- Primary-Stage Colon Cancer Impairs Muscle Energy Metabolism by Suppressing Mitochondrial Complex I Activity.Journal of cachexia, sarcopenia and muscle · 2025Article
- Article
- Physical Activity, Exerkines, and Their Role in Cancer Cachexia.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Review
- Skeletal muscle endothelial dysfunction through the activin A-PGC1α axis drives progression of cancer cachexia.Nature cancer · 2025Article
- Bridging the tumor microenvironment: the pivotal role of cancer-associated fibroblasts in tumor cachexia development.Molecular cancer · 2025Review
- Motor unit adaptation to disuse: crossing the threshold from firing rate suppression to neuromuscular junction transmission.The Journal of physiology · 2025Review
- The Neurogenic Abnormities of Paraspinal Muscles Lead to Asymmetry of Fibre Types in Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis.Journal of cellular and molecular medicine · 2025Article
- Age, cancer, and the dual burden of cancer and doxorubicin in skeletal muscle wasting in female rats: which one to blame?Biogerontology · 2025Article
- Transcriptional analysis of cancer cachexia: conserved and unique features across preclinical models and biological sex.American journal of physiology. Cell physiology · 2024Article
- Comment on 'Neuromuscular Impairment at Different Stages of Human Sarcopenia' by Sarto et al.Journal of cachexia, sarcopenia and muscle · 2024Article
- Article
- Skeletal muscle dysfunction with advancing age.Clinical science (London, England : 1979) · 2024Review
- Skeletal muscle immobilisation-induced atrophy: mechanistic insights from human studies.Clinical science (London, England : 1979) · 2024Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
7 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Cancer cachexia is a major cause of patient morbidity and mortality, with no efficacious treatment or management strategy. Despite cachexia sharing pathophysiological features with a number of neuromuscular wasting conditions, including age-related sarcopenia, the mechanisms underlying cachexia remain poorly understood. Studies of related conditions suggest that pathological targeting of the neuromuscular junction (NMJ) may play a key role in cachexia, but this has yet to be investigated in human patients. Here, high-resolution morphological analyses were undertaken on NMJs of rectus abdominis obtained from patients undergoing upper GI cancer surgery compared with controls (N = 30; n = 1,165 NMJs). Cancer patients included those with cachexia and weight-stable disease. Despite the low skeletal muscle index and significant muscle fiber atrophy (P < 0.0001) in patients with cachexia, NMJ morphology was fully conserved. No significant differences were observed in any of the pre- and postsynaptic variables measured. We conclude that NMJs remain structurally intact in rectus abdominis in both cancer and cachexia, suggesting that denervation of skeletal muscle is not a major driver of pathogenesis. The absence of NMJ pathology is in stark contrast to what is found in related conditions, such as age-related sarcopenia, and supports the hypothesis that intrinsic changes within skeletal muscle, independent of any changes in motor neurons, represent the primary locus of neuromuscular pathology in cancer cachexia.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.