Cancer-associated cachexia is a complex metabolic syndrome characterized by weight loss and systemic inflammation. Muscle loss and fatty infiltration into muscle are associated with poor prognosis in cancer patients. Skeletal muscle secretes myokines, factors with autocrine, paracrine and/or endocrine action, which may be modified by or play a role in cachexia. This study examined myokine content in the plasma, skeletal muscle and tumor homogenates from treatment-naïve patients with gastric or colorectal stages I-IV cancer with cachexia (CC, N ¼ 62), or not (weight stable cancer, WSC, N ¼ 32). Myostatin, interleukin (IL) 15, follistatin-like protein 1 (FSTL-1), fatty acid binding protein 3 (FABP3), irisin and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) protein content in samples was measured with Multiplex technology; body composition and muscle lipid infiltration were evaluated in computed tomography, and quantification of triacylglycerol (TAG) in the skeletal muscle. Cachectic patients presented lower muscle FSTL-1 expression (p ¼ 0.047), higher FABP3 plasma content (p ¼ 0.0301) and higher tumor tissue expression of FABP3 (p ¼ 0.0182), IL-15 (p ¼ 0.007) and irisin (p ¼ 0.0110), compared to WSC. Neither muscle TAG content, nor muscle attenuation were different between weight stable and cachectic patients. Lumbar adipose tissue (AT) index, visceral AT index and subcutaneous AT index were lower in CC (p ¼ 0.0149, p ¼ 0.0455 and p ¼ 0.0087, respectively), who also presented lower muscularity in the cohort (69.2% of patients; p ¼ 0.0301), compared to WSC. The results indicate the myokine profile in skeletal muscle, plasma and tumor is impacted by cachexia. These findings show that myokines eventually affecting muscle wasting may not solely derive from the muscle itself (as the tumor also may

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Oral cancer squamous cell carcinoma (OCSCC) mainly affects individuals aged between 50 and 70 years who consume tobacco and alcohol. tobacco smoke contains hundreds of known toxic and carcinogenic molecules, and a few studies have sought to verify the relationship of such trace elements as risk or prognostic factors for head and neck cancer. We obtained 78 samples of tumor tissues from patients with ocScc, and performed a qualitative elemental characterization using the micro X-Ray fluorescence technique based on synchrotron radiation. We found the presence of magnesium, phosphorus, sulfur, chlorine, potassium, calcium, chromium, manganese, iron, zinc, cobalt, nickel, copper, arsenic and bromine in ocScc samples. Magnesium, chlorine, chromium, manganese, nickel, arsenic and bromine are associated with smoking. We observed a significant association between relapse and chlorine and chromium. the presence of chlorine in the samples was an independent protective factor against relapse (oR = 0.105, CI = 0.01-0.63) and for best disease-free survival (HR = 0.194, CI = 0.04-0.87). Reporting for the first time in oral cancer, these results suggest a key relationship between smoking and the presence of certain elements. in addition, chlorine proved to be important in the context of patient prognosis and survival. Squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) accounts for more than 90% of oral cancer cases 1,2 and mainly affects individuals aged between 50 and 70 years who consume tobacco and alcohol. It may also be associated with human papillomavirus infection, genetic susceptibility and passive smoking exposure 1-5. Tobacco smoke itself, which contains hundreds of known toxic and carcinogenic molecules 6,7 , can induce DNA damage 8. Among these substances are several inorganic compounds, such as arsenic, calcium, chlorine, cobalt, copper, chromium, iron, magnesium, manganese, nickel, potassium, zinc and others 9,10. The analysis of trace elements is quite uncommon in the head and neck cancer field. Over the past two decades, a few studies have sought to verify the identity of these and other trace elements as risk or prognostic factors for head and neck cancer. Some authors verified the differences in the profile of trace elements in the blood (plasma/serum) of patients with or without head and neck cancer 11-19. Differences were also found in the analyses performed on the hair and nails of patients with head and neck cancer 15,17,20,21. However, in studies carried out

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