Table 1.
Descriptive characteristics
| Mean (SD) or N (%) | CON | CWS | CWL | P value |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| N = 26 | N = 47 | N = 27 | ||
| Age (years) | 65.0 (8.2) | 63.6 (9.0) | 66.0 (8.0) | 0.52 |
| Ht (cm) | 176.2 (6.0) | 177.3 (7.5) | 177.1 (9.7) | 0.84 |
| Wt (kg) | 93.6 (16.7) | 97.9 (20.7)* | 82.9 (22.9) | 0.01 |
| BMI (kg/m2) | 30.2 (5.4) | 31.0 (5.5)* | 26.4 (6.0) | 0.003 |
| 6‐mo Wt change (%) | −2.4 (2.2)* | −0.6 (2.3)* | −8.7 (5.9) | <0.001 |
| Ethnicity | 0.81 | |||
| White, non‐Hispanic | 19 (73.1) | 30 (63.8) | 23 (85.2) | |
| White, Hispanic | 0 (0.0) | 3 (6.4) | 1 (3.7) | |
| Black, non‐Hispanic | 5 (19.2) | 6 (12.8) | 2 (7.4) | |
| Asian, Pacific Islander | 1 (2.2) | 3 (6.4) | 1 (3.7) | |
| Native American | 0 (0.0) | 2 (4.3) | 0 (0.0) | |
| Multiple | 0 (0.0) | 2 (4.3) | 0 (0.0) | |
| Unknown/declined | 1 (2.2) | 1 (2.1) | 0 (0.0) | |
| Tumour | 0.47 | |||
| Gastrointestinal | — | 19 (40.4) | 14 (51.9) | |
| Genitourinary | — | 28 (59.6) | 13 (48.1) | |
| Stage | 0.28 | |||
| 1/2 | — | 37 (78.7) | 18 (66.7) | |
| 3/4 | — | 10 (21.3) | 9 (33.3) | |
| Prior 3 month chemo (y) | — | 6 (12.8) | 6 (22.2) | 0.34 |
| Prior 3 month rads (y) | — | 4 (8.5) | 4 (14.8) | 0.45 |
CON, non‐cancer control patients; CWS, weight‐stable cancer patients; CWL, cancer patients with weight loss; BMI, body mass index; chemo, chemotherapy exposure; rads, radiation exposure; y, yes. P values were derived from one‐way ANOVA with Tukey's post‐hoc pairwise comparison for continuous variables or from Fisher's exact test for categorical variables.
*
vs. CWL, P ≤ 0.05.