Variable body and tissue weight reporting in preclinical cachexia literature may alter study outcomes and interpretation

Cancer cachexia is a multifactorial syndrome of body weight loss, muscle wasting and progressive functional decline, affecting many advanced cancer patients and leading to worsened clinical outcomes. Despite inherent limitations of many preclinical cachexia models, including large tumor burden, rapid tumor growth and young age of animals, these animal models are widely used and imperative for the study of cachexia mechanisms and experimental therapeutics. However, there are currently no guidelines for the reporting and representation of data in preclinical cachexia literature. We examined the current state of data reporting in publications using the colon-26 adenocarcinoma (C26) model of cachexia and compared statistical differences in reporting mechanisms using animals from our laboratory. We show that data reporting and representation in C26 preclinical cachexia literature are diverse, making comparison of study outcomes difficult. Further, different expression of body and tissue weights in our animals led to differential statistical significance, which could significantly alter data interpretation. This study highlights a need for consistent data reporting in preclinical cancer cachexia literature to effectively compare outcomes between studies and increase translatability to the human condition.