Body
"A novel preclinical mouse model of pancreatic cancer may promote better understanding of the mechanisms that lead to disability in human cancer patients, according to the findings of a new study presented this week at the Association of Academic Physiatrists Annual Meeting.
Cachexia is a wasting disease common in cancer and many other chronic diseases marked by severe loss of body weight and muscle. This may lead to progressive loss of function in cancer patients. However, how cachexia or cancer cause physical or cognitive functional decline at the physiologic level is still unknown, said Ishan Roy, MD, PhD, a physical medicine and rehabilitation resident at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.
“Current knowledge about the physiological mechanisms of disability in cancer patients is poor because of a lack of sufficient longitudinal models. Researchers need animal models for their cancer investigations in order to one day develop more effective, targeted rehabilitation interventions,” said Dr. Roy.
After an extensive search, they Dr. Roy and a team of researchers funded by the innovative Catalyst grant program at Shirley Ryan AbilityLab found that no current animal models of cancer are effective for studying rehabilitation-relevant scientific questions. They conducted this study with a goal to develop a new, low-cost mouse model of pancreatic cancer through careful and rigorous optimization experiments."