Society on Sarcopenia, Cachexia and Wasting Disorders


The Society on Sarcopenia, Cachexia and Wasting Disorders is an international and multidisciplinary non-profit organization, created in . It focuses on Cachexia and Sarcopenia.
Cachexia and sarcopenia are a major public health problem: frequent, costly, and deadly. They are often under-diagnosed and patients groups try to improve awareness about them. Cachexia has been coined as the "last illness" and is sometime called "body wasting". The prevalence of cachexia ranges from 5–15% in end-stage chronic heart failure to 50–80% in advanced malignant cancer. It is estimated that 5 Million Americans have the condition and Cachexia is frequently occurring in patients with chronic kidney disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, HIV, Multiple sclerosis, neurological diseases, and rheumatoid arthritis. Mortality rates of patients with cachexia range from 15–25% per year in severe COPD through 20–40% per year in patients with chronic heart failure or chronic kidney disease to 20–80% in cancer cachexia. SCWD was founded in 2008 on the initiative of Prof. Stefan D. Anker, Germany and Dr. John E. Morley, USA. It is made up of an international and multidisciplinary group of healthcare professionals in the fields of sarcopenia, cachexia and muscle wasting.As of 2018, the society had 150 members.
The purpose and objectives of the Society on Sarcopenia, Cachexia and Wasting Disorders are to:
The Society on Sarcopenia, Cachexia and Wasting Disorders is a non-profit scientific organization registered in the United States of America and Switzerland. The president is Prof. Stefan Anker, Germany who is also vice-president of the European Society of Cardiology, the Vice-president is Dr. John Morley, USA and the treasurer is Prof. Andrew J. Coats, United Kingdom who particularly investigated cardiac cachexia at an early stage.
The Board is made up of :
Stefan D. Anker – Berlin, Germany
Josep M. Argiles – Barcelona, Spain
Vickie E. Baracos – Edmonton, Canada
Andrew J. S. Coats – Norwich, UK
Wolfram Doehner – Berlin, Germany
William J. Evans – Duke University, USA
Luigi Ferrucci – Baltimore, USA
David J. Glass – Boston, USA
Akio Inui – Kobe, Japan
Aminah Jatoi – Rochester, USA
Kamyar Kalantar-Zadeh – Los Angeles, USA
John E. Morley – St. Louis, USA
Filippo Rossi-Fanelli – Rome, Italy
Florian Strasser – St. Gallen, Switzerland
Stephan von Haehling – Göttingen, Germany
Prof Ken Fearon was a Board member until he passed away in September 2016. He had received the Hippocrates Award from the Society. Professor Fearon was particularly involved in cancer cachexia: leading an international consensus.

Educational initiatives

Conferences

Since 2000 the SCWD Society has organized several international conferences. In 2009, the conference took place in Barcelona, Spain. In 2011, the 7th conference took place in Italy. One of them took place in Kobe, Japan. Those conferences have taken place every two years. However, in 2015, in Paris, it was decided to organize the conferences annually.
The location of the 2016 congress is Berlin on 10–11 December 2016. The programme includes a statistical seminar, a mentor or career session and sessions on cachexia, sarcopenia and muscle wasting.
It addresses frailty, sarcopenia and cachexia resulting from the following diseases or chronic conditions: Cancer, Cardiovascular Disease, Death, Dying & Grief, Dementia/Alzheimer's Disease, Diabetes, Heart Failure and Ageing. Update on Anabolics and Related Therapie sare also provided. Results of clinical trials are also presented, such as data from a Phase II clinical trial of MT-102 in cancer-related cachexia presented in Kobe in 2013. The latest conference took place in Maastricht in 2018. In 2019, the international conference will take place in Berlin.


Target audience: Internists, Oncologists, Geriatricians, Cardiologists, Nephrologists, Palliative care specialists, Nurse Practitioners and Primary Care Providers.
Attendance:
YearCongressVenueNo of Registered Delegates
20001stBerlin150
20032ndBerlin250
20053rdRome300
20074thTampa340
20095thBarcelona410
20116thMilano450
20137thKobe390
20158thParis500
20169thBerlin300
201710thRome470
201811thMaastricht
201912thBerlin

A charity dinner is sometimes organised during SCWD Conférences such as in 2011 in Milan with the participation of Lisa Niemi.
Posters: each meeting features 120-200 posters.
The SCWD releases regular highlights of its meetings.

Consensus meetings

Since 2006, the SCWD has also organized several consensus meetings to address issues related to the definition of cachexia, sarcopenia as well the regulatory pathways for treatment development in cachexia, sarcopenia and the syndrome of muscle wasting.
The major objective was to bring together a multi-disciplinary team of experts in order to develop, as a united body, a consensus of statements based on the following topics:
These consensus gathered together about 30 international scientists, including representatives from regulatory authorities. The invited experts are well recognized academic leaders in geriatrics, oncology, cardiology, pulmonology and regulatory issues.
These consensus projects aimed to facilitate the future design and performance of clinical trials in the fields of cachexia and sarcopenia They also generated recommendations for nutritional management.

Journal

The Journal of Cachexia, Sarcopenia and Muscle published by Wiley-Blackwell is the official journal of SCWD. It was created in 2010. According to the Journal Citation Reports, the journal has a 2017 impact factor of . JCSM has seen an increase in citations and submissions in 2016. It is ranked in the first 10 journals for all journals in the field of "medicine, general and internal.. Two daughter journals also exist: JCSM—Clinical started in July 2016 and JCSM—Rapid .

About Muscle Wasting, Cachexia and Sarcopenia

Cachexia is a major issue, especially in the elderly. Cachexia can occur in most major diseases including infections, cancer, heart disease, chronic kidney disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and stroke. Skeletal muscle provides a fundamental basis for human function, enabling locomotion and respiration. Muscle wasting is related to a poor quality of life and increased morbidity / mortality.
Two common but distinct conditions characterized by a loss of skeletal muscle mass are sarcopenia and cachexia. Sarcopenia and cachexia represent the major causes of muscle-wasting disorders.
It has been known for millennia that muscle and fat wasting leads to poor outcomes including deaths in chronic disease states.
It is usually accompanied by physical inactivity, decreased mobility, slow gait, and poor physical endurance which are also common features of the frailty syndrome.

Cachexia and sarcopenia are both characterized by an important muscle dysfunction and weakness that lead to increased morbidity and mortality. The cost of muscle wasting is high.