When cancer patients complain of losing weight, they are told to go home and eat ice cream. But this advice doesn't work. Why? The loss of weight and muscle mass during cancer has less to do with calories and more to do with the process of fighting cancer. One of the things that happens is that the body starts to use its own muscles to provide essential amino acids for defense. The process of eating your own muscles leads to increased fatigue, less activity, and more muscle loss from inactivity. It's a downward spiral. But simply adding more calories isn't going to reverse that cycle. The body needs amino acids, not calories. Providing the body with specific amino acids, or taking a hormone that forces the body to build lean muscle, may provide more benefit than eating more. Even adding drugs may not help. Two drugs, Megace and THC were not effective at increasing quality of life. Megace did give patients more fat, and THC did help appetite, but neither significantly...