# 5th Cancer Cachexia Conference: Bridging Molecular Advances to Clinical Care

> **NIH NIH R13** · MEDICAL UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH CAROLINA · 2020 · $25,000

## Abstract

ABSTRACT
Cachexia is a debilitating syndrome of cancer, characterized by severe weight loss resulting from the depletion
of mainly skeletal muscle and adipose. Muscle atrophy in particular is associated with weakness and fatigue, a
lower tolerance to chemotherapy, and increased risk for adverse outcomes following surgery. Estimates indicate
that the prevalence of cachexia in cancer is 50-80%, and 20% of all cancer deaths are linked to cachexia rather
than directly to the tumor burden. Although Phase III clinical studies have been performed in cancer cachexia,
they have failed to reach their primary endpoint. Thus, there remains an urgent need to better understand the
underlying mechanisms by which tumor factors drive muscle and fat loss, so as to identify viable therapeutic
targets that can be translated to an effective treatment. Although NIH has been a strong supporter of cachexia
research, and interest has grown in the pharmaceutical industry, no standalone cancer cachexia conferences
had been organized to bring scientists and clinicians together to interact and freely exchange knowledge of
unpublished data. In 2012, a committee was formed to organize the first, cancer cachexia focused international
conference, which was held in Boston. Based on the success of that first meeting, subsequent biennial
conferences took place in Montreal (2014), Washington DC (2016), and Philadelphia (2018). The results from
those meetings contributed a growing number of new laboratories entering the field and provided new
knowledge. Still, much remains to be answered in the areas of clinical trial design, prognostic and diagnostic
biomarkers, and choice of animal models. We propose to tackle these gaps through the organization of our 5th
cancer cachexia conference entitled, “Bridging molecular advances to clinical care”. The aims for this conference
will be to 1) better identify meaningful outcome measures for cancer cachexia clinical trials; and 2) to better
translate findings from animal models to human studies in cancer cachexia. Achieving these goals should
stimulate new ideas and accelerate the development of anti-cachexia therapies.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9993766
- **Project number:** 1R13CA250331-01
- **Recipient organization:** MEDICAL UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
- **Principal Investigator:** Denis C Guttridge
- **Activity code:** R13 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $25,000
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2020-09-01 → 2021-09-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9993766

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9993766, 5th Cancer Cachexia Conference: Bridging Molecular Advances to Clinical Care (1R13CA250331-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-25 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9993766. Licensed CC0.

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