The disclosure relates to the discovery that systemic administration of an antibody that binds to PECAM-1 increases body weight while suppressing the metastatic spread of a wide variety of different tumor types which are typically fatal in humans. This discovery provides a basis for the generation of novel treatments and medicaments, wherein provision of a systemic dosage of anti-pECAM-1 antibody or a proxy that provides the same functional result is administered to a patient suffering from cancer cachexia and/or metastasis associated with end-stage cancer