The University of Windsor is getting a boost in its efforts to treat and defeat a killer.
CIBC has continued its long-standing tradition of supporting the university's programs by providing a $100,000 gift to the school's Faculty of Human Kinetics. The cheque was presented during a media event Tuesday morning.
The money is being used to further a study project by Dr Matthew Krause, assistant professor in the Department of Kinesiology, which studies the effect of cancer and the treatment of it on muscle loss. The condition, called cachexia, is an involuntary loss of skeletal muscle mass, combined with inflammation and altered body metabolism. It is experienced by most cancer patients and is believed to be responsible for contributing to about 20 per cent of cancer deaths.
Krause said the gift will go a long way toward getting to the bottom of the problem.
"Part of that money will be used to acquire some equipment and acquire the supplies that are needed to actually run these types of lab studies," said Krause. "This type of stuff isn't particularly cheap. The other portion of the money will go toward student scholarships."
With a wide variety of cancers being treated, Krause said it is important to understand that certain treatments may be contributing to cachexia.
"Some drug treatments themselves are hard on the body, and those things combine to cause skeletal muscle wasting," said Krause. "Fat tissue can waste away as well, but when skeletal muscle wastes away, things get difficult. Once you reach a certain threshold, that's when mortality rates go up."
Information on cachexia and its effect on cancer patients can be found on the official website of the National Cancer Institute, an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
