Effects by daily long term provision of ghrelin to unselected weight-losing cancer patients: a randomized double-blind study

What Was Tested

Researchers studied Ghrelin in this randomized controlled trial publication.

Who Took Part

The study group was 17 patients.

The age groups tagged for this paper are older adults, both men and women.

Appetite was scored on a visual analog scale; and food intake, resting energy expenditure, and body composition (dual x-ray absorpitometry) were measured before the start of treatment and during follow-up.

How the Study Was Run

The researchers set it up as a randomized and double-blind study.

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

Blinding on both sides kept the patients and researchers unaware of who received Ghrelin.

This hypothesis was evaluated in a randomized, double-blind, phase 2 study.

Serum levels of ghrelin, insulin, insulin-like growth factor 1, growth hormone (GH), triglycerides, free fatty acids, and glucose were measured.

Health-related quality of life, anxiety, and depression were assessed by using standardized methods (the 36-item Short Form Health Survey and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale).

Physical activity, rest, and sleep were measured by using a multisensor body monitor.

What Was Measured

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Appetite Stimulants, Gastrointestinal Neoplasms, Ghrelin, Motor Activity, Quality of Life and Weight Loss.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized and double-blind study of Ghrelin in 17 patients.

With fewer than 40 people, it is a small study, so it is better read as an early signal for further research than as a settled answer.

The abstract goes on to report its results in about 7 sentences; this page does not restate them, so read the paper for the findings and their limits.

The publication is from 2010 (Cancer), a journal based in United States.

More context: the Ghrelin compound page, all human trials.