According to Tengiz Tsuladze, a member of the med council set up by the Public Defender, Mikheil Saakashvili has cachexia of fourth degree, which is typical for cancer patients.

As Tsuladze said at the trial regarding the postponement of the sentence or release from the sentence for the third president of Georgia, Mikheil Saakashvili, cachexia is not only starvation and it is related to such diseases as obstructive lung disease, cancer, rheumatoid arthritis.

"Cachexia is not just starvation. Cachexia is associated with weight loss and inflammatory markers. If you see cachexia in the literature, it's associated with diseases like obstructive pulmonary disease, cancer, rheumatoid arthritis—diseases that this patient doesn't seem to have, but if we take the protocol, in this case the criteria approach is used. Therefore, in my opinion, it is not entirely due to starvation, it is indicated by the deepening of the anemia and the fever, which we cannot explain.

If we take the criteria of cachexia, it is a fourth degree, which is observed with tumors and not observed with normal diseases. Level 4 cachexia is a serious condition, in the case of cancer it has a high mortality rate - median 4 months, i.e. maximum 8 months, although these studies are mainly conducted on tumors, and such type of studies are not conducted on other patients. However, cachexia in itself is very severe and probably will affect his life expectancy drastically," said Tengiz Tsuladze.

source: IPN