KAIST Breakthrough: RNA Therapy Reverses Cancer Cachexia, Boosts Survival to 90%

For decades, cancer has carried a hidden accomplice — not the tumor itself, but a brain-mediated wasting process that quietly dismantles the body from within, leaving patients too weak to survive the very treatments meant to save them. Researchers at KAIST in South Korea have now traced this betrayal to its origin: a molecular signal hijacking the brainstem, commanding the body to consume itself. By silencing the receptor that receives this command, their RNA-based therapy achieved 90 percent survival in treated mice against 20 percent in untreated ones — a result that reframes cancer cachexia