Funding News - Research on Cachexia and Quality of Life Encouraged

The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), the National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR), the National Cancer Institute (NCI), the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), and the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) encourage grant applications for research related to the prevention and management of cachexia to improve the quality of life.* Cachexia is a condition of severe malnutrition-characterized by anorexia, weight loss, and muscle wasting-that occurs as a consequence of chronic conditions such as cystic fibrosis, cerebral palsy, cancer, AIDS, congestive heart failure, failure to thrive in older populations, end-stage organ failure, neurological degenerative diseases, chronic obstructive lung disease, chronic liver disease, and chronic renal failure. Numerous educational interventions are available for patients and families to treat and manage physical and emotional symptoms associated with cachexia to improve quality of life. However, these interventions have not been scientifically validated. Potential areas of research interest include studies to: determine which symptoms of cachexia are amenable to metabolic or biochemical interventions and which symptoms require behavioral interventions in order to improve quality of life; identify and test nutritional, pharmacological, and psychoneuroimmunological interventions to prevent or treat the anticipated onset of anorexia with cachexia; test biobehavioral interventions to promote quality of life in cachectic patients who have different underlying conditions or diseases; compare and contrast traditional treatments alone or in tandem with alternative or complementary therapies to arrest cachexia in two or more different underlying conditions or diseases; identify biological, immunological, chemical, genetic, or behavioral markers to be used as an index of successful outcome measures in cachexia or the treatment and management of cachexia; explore regimens to improve dyspnea, impaired mobility, pain, anorexia and fatigue associated with cachexia; explore the role of the neuroendocrine system in the development of cachexia; and examine the contribution of cachexia to the progression of neurodegenerative disease. For more information, potential applicants should contact Dr. Jill Heemskerk, Program Director, Neurodegeneration Cluster, NINDS, Neuroscience Center, 6001 Executive Boulevard, Room 2204, Bethesda, MD 20892; telephone: (301) 496-5680; fax: (301) 480-1080; e-mail: jh440o@nih.gov.

*For a more detailed description of this program announcement, please visit the NIH web site at: http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PA-01-109.html.