Stopped: Low accrual
Cachexia is a systemic catabolic syndrome with apparent effect on skeletal muscles, tolerance to chemotherapy, early toxicity and quality of life; however, its effect on cardiopulmonary function is not well understood. Preclinical studies demonstrated diaphragmatic muscle wasting(29) and left ventricular wasting and fibrosis associated with mouse cachexia models.(40) Many patients, who experience cancer cachexia, describe a generalized debility and a sense of breathlessness(41) despite adequate oxygenation in the peripheral blood as measured by pulse oximetry. Whether this is related to deconditioning associated with chemotherapy or related to direct effect on cardiac and diaphragmatic muscles remains unknown. In this pilot study, the investigators propose to perform a preliminary evaluation of the cardiopulmonary function in patients with pancreatic cancer, who are likely to develop cachexia, to assess for the feasibility of performing a larger prospective study to understand the impact of cancer cachexia on cardiopulmonary function. This pilot study will provide the foundation to potentially identify cachexia in early stages (pre-cachexia) to develop pharmacological or exercise based interventions to prevent or delay its progression. Based on clinical experience and published literature, it is expected that 60-70% of patients will have \>10% weight loss during the course of this disease. More commonly, this is associated with clinical or radiographic disease progression, but certainly it can happen throughout the course of the disease even without disease progression.
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The number of patients who have changes in echocardiography, pulmonary function or one or more part of their functional evaluation tests
Timeframe: Baseline to disease progression or development of cachexia (approximately 6 months)