Glucose-induced thermogenesis in patients with small cell lung carcinoma. Before and after inhibition of tumour growth by chemotherapy

Summary. Seven weight-losing patients with histologically verified small cell lung carcinoma were given an oral glucose load of 75 g before and at least 3 weeks after the end of chemotherapy to examine the effect of glucose on whole body and skeletal muscle thermogenesis before and after reduction of tumour. Whole body energy expenditure was measured by the open circuit ventilated hood system. Forearm blood flow was measured by venous-occlusion strain-gauge plethysmography. The uptake of oxygen in skeletal muscle was calculated as the product of the forearm blood flow and the difference in a-v oxygen concentration. Whole body resting energy expenditure (REE) did not increase, it was 4.4±0.3kJmin^-1(mean±SE) before chemotherapy and 4.4±0.2 kJ min^-1 after chemotherapy. The glucose-induced thermogenesis in the 180 min following the glucose load was 93.6±9.9 kJ 180 min^-1 before chemotherapy. This is significantly increased compared to that found in a healthy control group (74.7±4.8 kJ 180 min^-1, P < 0.02). The glucose-induced thermogenesis was significantly reduced to 47.7±10.2 kJ 180 min^-1 (P < 0.05) after chemotherapy. The oxygen uptake in resting skeletal muscles was 6.9±0.3 μmol 100 g^-1 min^-1 before chemotherapy and 7.0±0.7 μmOI 100 g^-1 min^-1 after chemotherapy. This did not increase during the first 90 min following the glucose load in either investigations. In the period 90–180 min following the glucose load, the oxygen uptake was significantly increased before chemotherapy as compared to after chemotherapy, which suggests that the reduced whole body thermogenesis after chemotherapy in part was due to reduced skeletal muscle thermogenesis.