UCC food scientists muscle in on cancer

Food scientists at University College Cork are developing products to reduce cancer deaths due to muscle wasting — currently the cause of one in five cancer deaths.

Dr Aoife Ryan, dietitian and lecturer in nutritional sciences at UCC, said the wastage affected muscles involved in movement, breathing, and the heart.

“Ten years ago it was thought patients were losing fat. Now we can use their CT scans to measure exactly what patients are losing and we are gaining a huge understanding that the weight loss is actually muscle. It is rapid loss of muscle,” said Dr Ryan.