Research Highlight: Cachexia

The January 2019 issue of the Annals of Palliative Medicine was devoted to the subject of cancer cachexia in memory of Ken Fearon, MD, former Professor of Surgical Oncology at the University of Edinburgh, UK, and a renowned clinical researcher. Fearon’s work focused on taking a multidisciplinary approach to understanding the mediators and mechanisms of wasting in cancer cachexia and to finding effective therapies. The papers in this special issue, introduced by Mellar P. Davis, MD, and Eduardo Bruera, MD, include among their authors several members of the Nutrition and Cachexia Study Group and/or MASCC: Jeffrey Crawford, MD, Shalini Dalal, MD, Mellar P. Davis, MD, Egidio Del Fabbro, MD, Rony Dev, MD, Aminah Jatoi, MD, Antonio Vigano, MD, MSc, and Sriram Yennu, MD. The papers, which include such topics as cancer cachexia definition, diagnostic criteria, therapies, criteria for treatment response, and quality of life, are all freely available at the journal’s website: Annals of Palliative Medicine, Vol. 8, No. 1.