Cachexia is best known as a disease of cancer patients, but it is seen in patients with chronic infection, AIDS, heart failure, rheumatoid diseases and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
Affected males with this progressive muscular disease become wheelchair bound before 13 years of age, are ventilator dependent in their late teens to early 20s due to respiratory failure, with death in their late 20s to 30s due to cardiac or pulmonary problems.