Effect of a protein and energy dense N-3 fatty acid enriched oral supplement on loss of weight and lean tissue in cancer cachexia: a randomised double blind trial.

What Was Tested

This randomized controlled trial looks at Dietary Carbohydrates.

N-3 fatty acids, especially eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), may possess anticachectic properties.

This trial compared a protein and energy dense supplement enriched with n-3 fatty acids and antioxidants (experimental: E) with an isocaloric isonitrogenous control supplement (C) for their effects on weight, lean body mass (LBM), dietary intake, and quality of life in cachectic patients with advanced pancreatic cancer.

Who Took Part

The abstract describes 200 patients taking part.

PubMed indexes the participants as older adults, both men and women.

How the Study Was Run

The design is described as randomized, double-blind and multicenter.

Because people in this Dietary Carbohydrates study were split into groups at random, differences between the groups are less likely to reflect who happened to join each one.

Neither the patients nor the staff measuring them knew who was on Dietary Carbohydrates, so expectations could not easily colour the readings.

More than one site took part, so the patients came from several places.

What Was Measured

The subject headings attached to it are Cachexia, Chi-Square Distribution, Dietary Carbohydrates, Dietary Proteins, Dietary Supplements, Fatty Acids, Omega-3 and Neoplasms.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and multicenter study of Dietary Carbohydrates in 200 patients.

Its findings take up roughly 12 sentences of the abstract and are left out here on purpose; the source paper is the place to read them.

The publication is from 2003 (Gut), a journal based in England.

More context: all human trials.