Microbiota and Pancreatic Cancer Cachexia

Inclusion Criteria:

Patients with pancreatic cancer (n=12)

* ≥18 years and
* Newly diagnosed of pancreatic adenocarcinoma (local or metastatic) and
* Tube feeding or parenteral nutrition ≤ 14 days

Cachectic pancreatic cancer patients (n=6)

* Cachexia according to the Fearon criteria 1: involuntary weight loss \>5% over the last 6 months, or any level of weight loss \>2% and a BMI \<20 kg/m2 or sarcopenia. Sarcopenia will be diagnosed by BIA (fat-free mass index is \<17 kg/m2 in men and \<15 kg/m2 in women) 81, and not by CT, as it is faster and can be performed at the bedside of the patient. Non-cachectic pancreatic cancer patients (n=6)
* Normal nutritional state: weight stability (± 2% of habitual weight) over the last 6 months, no anorexia before the diagnosis (appetite rating on a visual analogue scale of 100mm), no known impaired glucose tolerance.

Healthy matched subjects (n=12)

* ≥18 years and
* BMI between 18.5 and 30 kg/m2 and
* Absence of chronic or acute disease and
* Matching for gender and age (± 5 years) with an included pancreatic cancer patient

Exclusion Criteria:

* \< 18 years or
* Inability to give consent or
* Insufficient knowledge of project language (French, German) or
* Pancreatic adenocarcinoma already treated by chemo- or radiotherapy, or major surgery as duodenopancreatectomy or biliary diversion
* Known rheumatologic or immunologic diseases
* Therapeutic antibiotics or immunosuppressive drugs (for instance glucocorticoids, cytostatics, antibodies) in the 30 days preceding the inclusion