The works of Hochwald et al. were among the first to suggest an alteration of muscle mitochondrial metabolism by demonstrating a decrease in ATP concentration in the gastrocnemius of rats with MCA sarcoma . The recent works of Constantinou and col. confirmed this hypothesis by demonstrating in vivo by 31P nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) a reduction in the rate of synthesis of ATP on the lower limb of mice with Lewis pulmonary carcinoma compared to its healthy mice . This work suggested a decrease in the ability to synthesize ATP during cancerous cachexia through decoupling proteins such as UCP3 . This decrease in ATP synthesis could also be explained by alterations in the functioning of the mitochondrial respiratory chain .