Babic A, Rosenthal MH, Bamlet WR, et al. - Given an association of pancreatic cancer with development of cachexia, a wasting syndrome thought to limit survival, researchers sought to quantify peripheral tissues longitudinally or to identify biomarkers predictive of future tissue wasting. Using CT, they measured adipose and muscle tissue at diagnosis and 50-120 days later in 164 patients with advanced pancreatic cancer. They observed reduced survival among patients with advanced pancreatic cancer in correlation with muscle loss and decrease in muscle density in two to four months after diagnosis. Greater future muscle loss was observed in correlation with higher plasma branched-chain amino acids and lower monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 at diagnosis.