Abstract #2311

Imaging the Tumor Macroenvironment: The Effect of Cachectic Tumors on Normal Tissues

Marie-France Penet¹, Samata Kakkad¹, Paul Winnard¹, Dmitri Artemov¹, Zaver M. Bhujwalla¹

¹Department of Radiology and Radiological Science, JHU ICMIC Program, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA

One of the most under explored and yet devastating consequences of cancer is cachexia, a condition in which the body is consumed by deranged carbohydrate, lipid, and protein metabolism. The ability to understand the interaction between the tumor and normal tissues and noninvasively image the sequence of development of this condition would be invaluable in identifying critical stages when the condition becomes life-threatening. Here we have identified imaging indices in preclinical studies that can, in the future, be translated to detect the development of the cachexia cascade in patients.