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Weighing in on weight loss in pancreatic cancer

Weight loss and tissue wasting often occur in pancreatic cancer. Analyses of human and mouse data reveal a mechanism behind these events, and raise the question of whether tissue wasting affects cancer survival rates.
  1. J. Matthias Löhr

    1. J. Matthias Löhr is in the Department of Cancer Medicine, Karolinska University Hospital, and in the Department of Clinical Intervention and Technology, Karolinska Institutet, SE-171 77 Stockholm, Sweden.

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An early symptom of pancreatic cancer is a profound loss in weight that can precede disease diagnosis by months1. Weight loss also occurs in other types of cancer, and is often associated with severe illness and a reduced quality of life. In a paper in Nature, Danai et al.2 report an analysis of pancreatic cancer, using mouse models and clinical data, that illuminates the consequences of weight loss for cancer outcomes.

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Nature 558, 526-528 (2018)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-018-05424-2

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Competing Interests

J.M.L does consulting for Abbott/Mylan. The author also declares non-financial competing interests: he is a steering group member of pancreaticcancereurope.org

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