GHRL and cancer: In preclinical cachexia models, ghrelin has had stimulatory effects on appetite and food intake (Hanada et al, 2003; Wang et al, 2006), lean body mass (DeBoer et al, 2007), gastrointestinal motility (Date et al, 2002), energy metabolism, and proinflammatory cytokine expression (Dixit et al, 2004), and it has also alleviated cancer chemotherapy-associated dyspepsia (Liu et al, 2006) and vomiting (Rudd et al, 2006).