{"id":247197,"date":"2026-11-12T19:11:11","date_gmt":"2026-11-13T01:11:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/11\/a-cellular-trio-drives-pancreatic-cancer-associated-cachexia"},"modified":"2026-11-12T19:11:11","modified_gmt":"2026-11-13T01:11:11","slug":"a-cellular-trio-drives-pancreatic-cancer-associated-cachexia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/11\/a-cellular-trio-drives-pancreatic-cancer-associated-cachexia","title":{"rendered":"A Cellular Trio Drives Pancreatic Cancer-Associated Cachexia"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>In previous work, Li and his colleagues had shown that pancreatic cancer cells induce muscle loss and require macrophages in the tumor microenvironment to trigger cachexia.<sup>4,5 <\/sup>While the crosstalk between macrophages, CAFs, and cancer cells is essential in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.the-scientist.com\/organs-synchronize-their-metabolic-response-in-cancer-wasting-syndrome-73964\" target=\"_self\">cancer-associated cachexia<\/a>, Li explained that these cell populations consist of a mixture of subpopulations that may or may not contribute to the wasting syndrome.<\/p>\n<p>In the new study, Li\u2019s team sought to uncover the identities of these cell subgroups and how they affected the progression of the syndrome. The researchers combined high-throughput sequencing methods, including single-cell and spatial transcriptomics, to analyze tumor, muscle, and blood samples from 43 patients with pancreatic cancer. \u201cThis [sample collection] is demanding, and it is the appropriate design for a condition that progresses and is systemic rather than local,\u201d Janowitz said, praising the study authors\u2019 effort. The patients were classified as non-cachectic, pre-cachectic, and cachectic based on their body-weight loss preceding their cancer diagnosis and their level of appetite.<\/p>\n<p>Li noted that, when the project started nearly two years ago, not all the necessary samples were available for the study. \u201cI made a lot of phone calls, and, fortunately, [lots] of good, supportive colleagues were willing to help us,\u201d said Li, adding that having access to these additional samples was key to providing enough statistical power for their group comparisons.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In previous work, Li and his colleagues had shown that pancreatic cancer cells induce muscle loss and require macrophages in the tumor microenvironment to trigger cachexia.4,5 While the crosstalk between macrophages, CAFs, and cancer cells is essential in cancer-associated cachexia, Li explained that these cell populations consist of a mixture of subpopulations that may or [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":662,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-247197","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biotech-medical"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/662"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=247197"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247197\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=247197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=247197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=247197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}