June 6, 2026, Rochester, MN – We are pleased to announce the publication of an important new study from Emmyon and its collaborators at University of Florida. Our study focused on cancer-induced muscle wasting, a condition that reduces quality of life, treatment tolerance, and survival in many patients with cancer. Unfortunately, cancer-induced muscle wasting cannot be reliably prevented or reversed by current management strategies. We hypothesized that dietary supplementation with ursolic acid might help support skeletal muscle mass and function during cancer. To test that hypothesis, we investigated ursolic acid’s effects in five in vivo mouse models of cancer cachexia that are driven by pancreatic, colon, and lung cancer cells of mouse and human origin. We found that dietary supplementation with ursolic acid has broad-spectrum effects against cancer-induced skeletal muscle atrophy, significantly preserving muscle mass in all five cancer cachexia models. Ursolic acid’s positive effects on muscle mass and muscle fiber size led to significant improvements in grip strength and muscle tetanic force, persisted in the presence of chemotherapy, and were not associated with discernible changes in food intake or tumor growth. Ursolic acid appeared to generate its beneficial effects in skeletal muscle by acting directly on muscle cells, inhibiting catabolic effects of tumor-derived secreted factors, and inhibiting >90% of cancer-induced changes in skeletal muscle mRNA expression. These results strongly nominate ursolic acid as a promising potential nutritional approach for supporting muscle mass and function in individuals with cancer.
The article can be freely obtained here or at the journal website: https://journals.physiology.org/doi/full/10.1152/ajpcell.00159.2026