ZK Cancer Research
A Family Company

The Problem

Cancer Cachexia Must Be Treated as Early as the Cancer Recognized, but It Isn’t in Practice

At some point of tumor development, about 70% of patients will unintentionally lose body weight and muscle mass (as shown in the picture to the right), the process being termed “cancer cachexia”. Once cachexia develops, it makes treatment inefficient. In fact, many cancer patients (~30%) die due to cachexia and not the tumor itself. In today’s medical practice, treatment of cachexia is insufficient partly because (a) when recognized it is too late to effectively deal with it, and (b) no single medication is available to ensure satisfactory results due to its multifactorial (some of them unknown) nature.

ZK Cancer Research is a family-owned biotechnological company which is testing the effects of a series of organic molecules (ZKC compounds) on the prevention of cancer cachexia in suitable mouse models. The goal is to eventually use the most effective and least toxic compound as an affordable add-on drug for the early treatment of human cancer patients.