Body Composition and Cancer Outcomes Research Webinar Series

Dr. Toth presented an overview of research examining the effects of cancer and its treatment on skeletal muscle size and function in humans, ranging from the whole body to the cellular level, and how maladaptations in skeletal muscle contribute to impaired physical functional capacity and quality of life. He also discussed the utility of exercise as an intervention to mitigate the detrimental effects of cancer and its treatment across the cancer continuum.

Dr. Babic described her work on early detection of pancreatic cancer using body composition analysis–specifically her work on changes in muscle and adipose tissue in years preceding diagnosis–and discussed how these changes can be leveraged as screening biomarkers of pancreatic cancer.

Dr. Rosenthal presented an overview of his research on body composition in pancreatic cancer. He discussed initial studies that suggested a link between muscle breakdown and early cancer and their subsequent evolution through mouse models and human studies. He also reviewed the role of AI-based automation in body composition analysis, how this approach was used to develop a reference cohort to normalize for demographic-related differences in body composition, and how demographic-adjusted body composition metrics can improve the power of body composition studies.

Dr. Demark-Wahnefried presented an overview of her research, ranging from observational studies that first documented sarcopenic obesity among cancer patients to diet, exercise, and weight management studies that improve body composition and result in improved outcomes among cancer survivors. She also discussed important questions surrounding communication with patients and the translation of research to clinical care and scalable interventions within the community.

Drs. Mohile and Dunne discussed their work examining the relationship between body composition and anti-cancer treatment tolerability in older adults with cancer.

Drs. Ulrich and Ose presented their work from the ColoCare Study using body composition measures to understand colorectal cancer biology and clinical outcomes. They discussed their findings for CT-derived measures of body composition, biomarkers of angiogenesis and inflammation, as well as direct adipose tissue-tumor interaction.

Dr. Iyengar presented his group’s research investigating the impact of adipose tissue biology on cancer progression. He discussed how adiposity alters the tumor microenvironment and ongoing intervention trials that seek to reduce adiposity, optimize body composition, and improve breast cancer outcomes.

In this webinar, Saaket Agrawal discussed his work utilizing MRI-derived measurements of adiposity to understand disease associations and the genetic architecture of body fat distribution. He also discussed how an individual's outline can be used to estimate these adiposity measurements to provide disease prediction information independent of body mass index and waist circumference.

Dr. Feliciano presented an overview of her research examining body composition as an important risk factor for short- and long-term outcomes after a cancer diagnosis. She also discussed important questions surrounding this issue, including the biologic mechanisms that underlie these relationships, developing safe and accurate measures of body composition for use in the clinic, and how patient body composition is most relevant to clinical care.

Dr. Goncalves presented an overview of his clinical work assessing and managing cachexia in cancer patients. He used specific case examples and retrospective data to highlight potential weight management strategies.

Dr. Sawyer presented an overview of research describing how body composition contributes to treatment-related toxicities in cancer patients. Implications for drug dosing and metabolism were discussed.

Dr. Furberg discussed the body mass index (BMI) paradox in kidney cancer- where patients who have high BMI at diagnosis survive longer than patients who are classified as normal weight. She highlighted the research her group is doing related to the molecular underpinnings of this association and also described the RESOLVE Study which refines BMI into body composition features and transcriptomically profiles tumors from more than 1,000 kidney cancer patients treated at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center to more accurately identify patients at highest mortality risk.

Dr. Beg presented recent developments in automating body composition measurements from CT scans and discussed applications for research.

Dr. Caan presented an overview of the work to date on sarcopenia (loss of skeletal muscle mass and/or function) and cancer outcomes. She discussed methodological challenges and existing research gaps and identify future directions.