Effect of parenteral nutrition on protein synthesis in adult cancer patients

The rate of whole body protein synthesis was measured with ¹⁵N glycine in three groups of subjects: normal healthy adult controls, semistarved adult patients with upper gastrointestinal tract malignancies and a group of patients similar except they were maintained parenterally on a regimen adequate in amino acids and glucose. By comparing the patient results with data obtained from rat studies with ¹⁵N glycine we concluded that the patients were protein rather than energy depleted.