cancer ranks among the major death causes worldwide. extensive research in the field led to a development of potent anticancer drugs that improved prognosis of patients with cancer. there is a considerable amount of evidence on metabolic pathways in tumour cells. in spite of that, much less is known about metabolic phenotype of the host organism. cancer cachexia is a major death cause in cancer patients, it is characterised by a systemic inflammation and progressive loss of body mass. cancer progression is linked with metabolic reprogramming of the host and major metabolic organs (skeletal muscle, adipose tissue, liver and pancreas) show signs of insulin resistance. these changes lead to a substrate flow from host catabolic to tumour anabolic compartment. increased adipose tissue lipolysis, decreased glucose disposal, increased hepatic glucose production and β-cells dysfunction. these changes represent an evolutionary conserved mechanism for substrate redistribution from peripheral tissues to immune cells and the brain during inflammatory syndrome and tumour exploits the mechanism to supply fuel for its proliferation.