ArticlePloS one2020
Brown fat does not cause cachexia in cancer patients: A large retrospective longitudinal FDG-PET/CT cohort study.
Article in PloS one, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 24 papers.
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Who cites it
24 citing papers in PubMed, 31 citations in OpenAlex.
- Association between brown adipose tissue activity and clinical outcomes in melanoma: a retrospective PET/CT analysis.Immuno-oncology technology · 2026Article
- Mechanistic Links Between Obesity and Breast Cancer Progression: Cellular Crosstalk, Metabolic Reprogramming and Microenvironmental Drivers.Cell biochemistry and function · 2026Review
- Cancer cachexia: A tumor-driven disorder of whole-body homeostasis.Cancer cell · 2026Review
- Cancer cachexia induces senescent reprogramming of brown adipose tissue and pro-cachectic S100A9 secretion by adipocytes.Cell death & disease · 2026Article
- Advances in the Role of Adipose Tissue in Promoting Injury Repair and Resist Infection.Immunity, inflammation and disease · 2026Review
- Mitochondrial uncoupling, energy substrate utilization, and brown adipose tissue as therapeutic targets in cancer.npj metabolic health and disease · 2025Review
- Physical Activity, Exerkines, and Their Role in Cancer Cachexia.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Review
- Brown adipose tissue machine learning nnU-Net V2 network using TriDFusion (3DF).EJNMMI research · 2025Article
- Brown adipose tissue is associated with reduced weight loss and risk of cancer cachexia: A retrospective cohort study.Clinical nutrition (Edinburgh, Scotland) · 2025Article
- Cancer cachexia: multilevel metabolic dysfunction.Nature metabolism · 2024Review
- Article
- Predicting standardized uptake value of brown adipose tissue from CT scans using convolutional neural networks.Nature communications · 2024Article
- The Different Shades of Thermogenic Adipose Tissue.Current obesity reports · 2024Review
- Cancer cachexia: biomarkers and the influence of age.Molecular oncology · 2024Review
- The role of brown adipose tissue in mediating healthful longevity.The journal of cardiovascular aging · 2024Article
- Unraveling the lost balance: Adrenergic dysfunction in cancer cachexia.Autonomic neuroscience : basic & clinical · 2024Review
- Hepatocellular carcinoma induced by hepatocyte Pten deletion reduces BAT UCP-1 and thermogenic capacity in mice, despite increasing serum FGF-21 and iWAT browning.Journal of physiology and biochemistry · 2023Article
- Brown adipose tissue is not associated with cachexia or increased mortality in a retrospective study of patients with cancer.American journal of physiology. Endocrinology and metabolism · 2023Article
- Blocking ActRIIB and restoring appetite reverses cachexia and improves survival in mice with lung cancer.Nature communications · 2022Article
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Authors and funding
13 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundBrown adipose tissue (BAT) is a specialized form of adipose tissue, able to increase energy expenditure by heat generation in response to various stimuli. Recently, its pathological activation has been implicated in the pathogenesis of cancer cachexia. To establish a causal relationship, we retrospectively investigated the longitudinal changes in BAT and cancer in a large FDG-PET/CT cohort.
methodsWe retrospectively analyzed 13 461 FDG-PET/CT examinations of n = 8 409 patients at our institution from the winter months of 2007-2015. We graded the activation strength of BAT based on the anatomical location of the most caudally activated BAT depot into three tiers, and the stage of the cancer into five general grades. We validated the cancer grading by an interreader analysis and correlation with histopathological stage. Ambient temperature data (seven-day average before the examination) was obtained from a meteorological station close to the hospital. Changes of BAT, cancer, body mass index (BMI) and temperature between the different examinations were examined with Spearman's test and a mixed linear model for correlation, and with a causal inference algorithm for causality.
resultsWe found n = 283 patients with at least two examinations and active BAT in at least one of them. There was no significant interaction between the changes in BAT activation, cancer burden or BMI. Temperature changes exhibited a strong negative correlation with BAT activity (ϱ = -0.57, p<0.00001). These results were confirmed with the mixed linear model. Causal inference revealed a link of Temperature ➜ BAT in all subjects and also of BMI ➜ BAT in subjects who had lost weight and increased cancer burden, but no role of cancer and no causal links of BAT ➜ BMI.
conclusionsOur data did not confirm the hypothesis that BAT plays a major role in cancer-mediated weight loss. Temperature changes are the main driver of incidental BAT activity on FDG-PET scans.
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