Health Medicine Network recently reported on research published in the journal Clinical Cancer Research co-authored by 2015 Medical Student Training in Aging Research (MSTAR) scholar Marc Weinberg that explores if muscle composition could be a predictor of chemotherapy side effects.
As Health Medicine Network reports:
Researchers at the University of North Carolina Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center report in the journal Clinical Cancer Research that a tool developed at UNC could potentially help doctors better identify patients at high risk for toxic side effects that could require hospitalizations.
Shlomit Strulov Shachar, MD, the study’s first author, said they found that low measures of muscle quality and quantity in patients with early-stage breast cancer were linked to serious side effects and hospitalizations. Based on their findings, the researchers believe measuring muscle composition could be helpful in predicting which patients will experience side effects from chemotherapy, and in determining appropriate drug doses.
Weinberg contributed to two articles exploring the relationship between muscle mass, body composition, and chemotherapy in the January issue of Clinical Cancer Research, which can be explored here.
Marc Weinberg currently is a Post Doctoral Fellow at University of North Carolina School of Medicine Gene Therapy Center.
Learn more about aging and Cancer in AFAR’s expert-edited InfoAging Disease Center here.
