medical Definition of cachectin
: tumor necrosis factor
- In 1985 a New York research group identified a protein, which they called cachectin, that causes emaciation in many patients with chronic infections or cancer. Shortly afterward, another group realized that cachectin was identical to tumor necrosis factor, a cancer-fighting substance manufactured by the cells of the immune system.
- —Gordon Bakoulis Bloch, Discover, April 1990
