Pre-cachexia in patients with stages I-III non-small cell lung cancer: Systemic inflammation and functional impairment without activation of skeletal muscle ubiquitin proteasome system

In conclusion, this exploratory study demonstrates significantly reduced exercise capacity in NSCLC pre-cachexia despite maintenance of muscle mass and unaltered indices of UPS activation. The absence of muscular NF-κB-dependent inflammatory signaling supports the notion that transition of systemic to local inflammation is required to initiate UPS-dependent muscle wasting characteristic for (experimental) cachexia.