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Cachexia, the muscle wasting driven partly by the hormone GDF-15, kills cancer patients and stops chemotherapy being completed, and late muscle loss is largely irreversible. Ponsegromab, an anti-GDF-15 antibody, reversed weight loss in established cachexia in 2024; the next test is a phase 3 giving it from first-line chemotherapy in pancreatic cancer to prevent wasting rather than treat it.
This idea proposes treating cachexia before it starts: wasting is a common cause of death in cancer and makes treatment impossible, and now that an effective anti-cachexia drug is in phase 3, the question is whether starting early prevents it. Ponsegromab reversed weight loss in established cachexia (2024), and GDF-15 rises early in pancreatic and lung cancer, so prevention could improve chemotherapy tolerance (Cancer cachexia pathway). The hypothesis is that anti-GDF-15 therapy from diagnosis in high-GDF-15 patients preserves muscle and increases chemotherapy completion and survival, because late muscle loss is largely irreversible. The test is a randomised phase 3 of ponsegromab from first-line chemotherapy in Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma; Non-small-cell lung cancer and Gastric cancer are also in scope.
Shares Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center and the tags mechanism, open-question.
Shares Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory and the tags mechanism, open-question.
Shares Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma and the tags mechanism, open-question.
Shares Non-small-cell lung cancer and the tags mechanism, open-question.
Shares Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma and the tags mechanism, open-question.
Shares Non-small-cell lung cancer and the tags mechanism, open-question.
Shares Gastric & gastro-oesophageal junction cancer and the tags mechanism, open-question.
Shares Non-small-cell lung cancer and the tags mechanism, open-question.