Grant: Foundation Grant

Patients with cancer often experience noticeable weight loss, which can start prior to diagnosis and which rapidly increases when the disease reaches an advanced stage. Over the course of the disease, affected people become thin sometimes to the point of becoming "skin and bones". This wasting, known as cachexia, is causes patients to become weak, frail and increasingly dependent on others for daily tasks and self care. Wasting also has important medical implications. Patients with wasting show very poor ability to tolerate cancer treatments and are sometimes forced to stop chemotherapy early due to severe side effects. There are no approved treatments for cancer-associated wasting. While all of the reasons for this are unclear, we may simply know too little about how body weight is controlled in people with cancer to be able to succeed. My vision is to discover new ways to alleviate cancer associated wasting. I developed a highly successful and internationally acclaimed research team in this area, which is unrivalled in its capacity to make key strides forward so that we can alleviate the suffering associated with this condition. 1. I will develop standardized criteria for diagnosis and early detection, so that every patient with risk of developing wasting can be identified as early as possible. 2. I will work to reveal the diverse factors which lead to wasting, so that we can provide a personalized and specific treatment approach to each patient. 3. I will also develop personalized chemotherapy dosing to limit toxicity in patients with wasting, allowing them to complete and benefit from their treatment plan. 4. I will continue to catalyze research partnerships to rapidly advance basic and clinical research and multiply the productivity of this unique Canadian-led effort.