Posted 6/23/2008

James Carson receives $1.1 million for cancer research

Dr. James Carson and his colleagues at the University of South Carolina in the Departments of Exercise Science, Biological Sciences, and the Center for Colorectal Cancer Research want to understand why some cancer patients literally waste away, suffering a loss of muscle and fat tissue. While it is well accepted that wasting of lean tissue decreases patients' quality of life, this condition also dramatically increases the risk of mortality and morbidity with cancer. This wasting disease, known as cancer cachexia, is responsible for 30-40% of all colon cancer-induced deaths, and cannot simply be attributed to a decrease in caloric intake.

Dr. James Carson

The National Cancer Institute (NCI, NIH) is also interested in this problem and recently funded a four-year RO1 grant, with Dr. Carson as the principal investigator, to study the role of inflammation in the induction of cancer cachexia. The studies funded by this grant will use a mouse cancer model bred at the University of South Carolina that mimics many aspects of human colon cancer. The aim of the project is to examine the causes of severe muscle wasting in this colon cancer model, with the future goal of identifying exercise and nutritional countermeasures that can prevent or treat this debilitating and deadly condition. Specifically, the study is examining the role of Interleukin-6, or IL-6, a mediator of inflammatory responses in the body, on the breakdown of muscle tissue. Because understanding the process of muscle loss is complex, several USC investigators are contributing their expertise to this project.

"We have a very strong investigative team," said Dr. Carson. "The investigators have been studying colon cancer, muscle metabolism, and inflammatory processes for many years, and are combining their knowledge and resources to try to unravel the problem of muscle wasting that so often accompanies colon cancer." Dr. Frank Berger, director of the Center for Colon Cancer Research, is providing the specialized mice that will be required for the investigation. Dr. Mark Davis, professor in the Department of Exercise Science, is testing the effects of exercise, which is known to reduce inflammation, on muscle wasting. Dr. John Baynes, also a professor in the Department of Exercise Science, is examining the role of inflammation on muscle metabolism dysfunction that could induce the wasting syndrome.

Although Dr. Carson's lab has studied many aspects of muscle regeneration from injury and growth, he is particularly interested in understanding, and ultimately preventing, the muscle wasting that accompanies cancer. "If we can prevent or treat wasting in colon cancer patients," he explains, "their chances for survival should increase tremendously." In addition, because adequate muscle mass is essential to metabolism, movement, and other key body processes, patients' quality of life would improve significantly.

NIH funding for this study, through an R01 grant, is approximately $1.1 million over four years. For more information about the study, contact Dr. Jim Carson at 777-0809 (carsonj@sc.edu).