Juliette Degens received NRS Travel Grant

Name: Juliette Degens, pulmonologist in training and PhD-student, Maastricht University Medical Center & NUTRIM School of Nutrition and Translational Research in Metabolism.

Congress: 12th congress of the Society on Sarcopenia, Cachexia and wasting disorders
6-8 December 2019

I would like to thank the NRS Young Investigators board to grand me the opportunity to be present at the 12th congress of the Society on Sarcopenia, Cachexia and wasting disorders in Berlin, Germany. During the congress, the most recent insights on early detection, prevention and treatment of sarcopenia, cachexia and weight loss were discussed both from a fundamental- as a clinical point of view. As a pulmonologist in training and PhD-student, with a special interest in cancer cachexia in advanced lung cancer, the attendance at the conference gave me the opportunity to discuss my latest results on body weight and body composition changes in stage IV non-small cell lung cancer patients treated with immune checkpoints inhibitors during my poster presentation. Furthermore, the sessions on early diagnosis and possible interventions for cancer cachexia had my specific interest both as a clinician and as a researcher. I was especially interested in the yet unpublished data about the possible protective effects of exercise in chemotherapy induced muscle atrophy in murine models (M. Toth, Skeletal muscle adaptation to chemotherapy and the protective effects of exercise, American Journal of Physciology-Cell Physiology, in press). Mostly because targeted interventions to prevent or treat cancer cachexia in humans are still lacking, new data on the effects of physical training in cancer cachexia, could give us new insights to treat cancer cachexia in future patients.