Cell 142, 531–543 (2010)

Massive muscle wasting affects most patients with cancer, and is often implicated in deaths from the disease. It is thought that myostatin, a protein that inhibits muscle growth, and other molecules in the same biochemical pathway regulate this process, called muscle cachexia.

H.Q. Han at Amgen Research in Thousand Oaks, California, and his team tested whether a molecule that interferes with a receptor for myostatin could prevent muscle cachexia in mice. Mice with cancer that were given the compound showed a complete reversal in muscle loss, as well as prolonged survival.