The 6th Cachexia Conference: an introduction to clinical and basic research in an exiting area

We would like to welcome all participants of the 6th Cachexia Conference in Milan, which takes place from December 8 to 10, 2011. The constantly growing number of participants who come from more than 27 countries shows that the meeting is well-received throughout the globe (Fig. 1). The conference provides an important opportunity to share and exchange knowledge in a vast number of fields in the area of cachexia and body wasting in many different illnesses. In addition, the meeting covers pathophysiological and biochemical aspects of cachexia and wasting disorders, but also the field of sarcopenia that receives increasing research efforts over the last several years. Thus, the Cachexia Conference provides a rare opportunity for exchange between basic researchers and clinicians. Fig. 1 Number of participants and of accepted abstracts at the Cachexia Conferences in Berlin, Germany (2000 and 2003), Rome, Italy (2005), Tampa, Florida (2007), and Barcelona, Spain (2009) This year, all 155 abstracts submitted for evaluation and accepted for presentation until end of September 2011 are included in this issue of the Journal of Cachexia, Sarcopenia and Muscle (JCSM). Abstracts accepted later will be printed in the first issue of 2012. Also, the number of abstracts has substantially increased since the initial conference (Fig. 1), and as you will see during the conference in Milan, an increased amount of space and time is given to poster discussions. The first issue of JCSM has been published in September 2010. JCSM is published quarterly as a hard copy journal as well as on an open-access basis without page charges for authors. All submitted articles are undergoing peer review. In April 2011, after appearance of only its third issue, JCSM was accepted for indexing in PubMed®. We are proud to say that all issues of JCSM are included in PubMed® and can be downloaded free of charge from PubMed Central as well as from the journal’s dedicated websites at www.jcsm.info and www.jcsm.springer.de. Since publication of the first issue of JCSM, three double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trials covering different aspects and therapeutic approaches to cachexia, have been included in the journal [1–3]. In addition, the rationale and design of two clinical studies (one a registry and the other a phase II clinical trial) have also been published in JCSM [4, 5]. We invite everyone to follow this example. Please help us to make JCSM the premier journal to read about dedicated treatment and prevention studies in the fields of cachexia and sarcopenia. According to Google Scholar, the total number of citations of all 12 articles published in 2010 alone sums up to 104 [6]. Therefore, authors submitting to JCSM have a high likelihood of broad awareness of their results. We were horrified when we learned about the tragic events in Fukushima and its surroundings that ultimately forced us to re-schedule our meeting. Our thoughts are with our Japanese colleagues and their families. We also sincerely hope that our next meeting in December 2013 can successfully take place in Kobe/Japan as originally planned for this year. But now we are in Milan and we want to sincerely thank the local organizers, the society staff and all our supporters in academica and industry for having helped us to make this conference possible. We wish all participants of the 6th Cachexia Conference an interesting and stimulating meeting and hope to meet up during the sessions, the poster discussions, or at one of the evening events. Many of you will be contacted to submit original papers and/or reviews to our journal. Only through the exchange of ideas and scientific research results we can ultimately achieve what this is all about—improve the lives of our patients. Cachexia, sarcopenia, and muscle wasting are big medical needs, and you and your publications are a seminal building stone of future therapeutic successes. Please feel invited to submit your work to JCSM. We promise, we will give it our undivided attention and turn around your manuscripts fast.