TransForm

The TransForm project is funded by the Irish Department of Agriculture Food and the Marine and brings together a team of multi-disciplinary scientists from the disciplines of Food Science, Nutritional Sciences and Dietetics, to create novel solutions to prevent malnutrition with a particular focus on Cancer Cachexia.

Irish citizens continue to suffer from malnutrition despite our relative prosperity. These issues afflict vulnerable members of society, such as the elderly and the ill. An example case is cancer cachexia (CC), in which cancer treatments and altered dietary patterns result in muscle wasting (sarcopenia). CC is often a literal “hidden hunger”, with individuals who appear to have a normal weight (or overweight) revealed to have an abnormal muscle mass when scanned with medical imaging. CC is a devastating syndrome affecting 50-80% of cancer patients, being responsible for the death of at least 20%. CC has a profound impact on quality-of-life, tolerance to treatments and survivorship. Here, CC will be a test case for developing a novel milk-derived nutritional hydrogel, designed for patients with early-stage CC. Current dietary strategies for CC include high-protein beverages and energy-dense diets but compliance rates in those afflicted with CC can be low, due to taste changes, poor appetite and early satiety. The proposed technological solution is a thermo-reversible caseinbased hydrogel, which can function as a natural delivery vehicle for proteins and micronutrients. These unique hydrogels solidify at room or refrigeration temperatures but, similarly to butter, melt when exposed to warmer temperatures. This hydrogel technology will be tested in a personalised ‘Food First’ nutritional intervention, serving as a supplement to be added to food. The primary operations used to develop the hydrogel technology will be familiar to dairy processors across Ireland and the extended shelf-life hydrogel will not require energyintensive evaporation and drying steps. Personalised menus incorporating the hydrogel will be designed. In the final stage, an open label randomised clinical trial in 70 cancer patients will be conducted to examine tolerance and acceptability of the hydrogel and its impact on protein intake and body composition (muscle mass) in a 6-week intervention.