Nutrition During and After Cancer Treatment
Articles about nutrition issues, including diarrhea, loss of appetite and more, written by OncoLink's nutrition experts. Links to useful websites about nutrition issues.
Nutrition During Cancer Treatment
An overview of nutrition concerns during cancer treatment, including diarrhea, poor appetite, mouth sores, constipation, nausea and weight gain/loss.
Taste Changes During Cancer Therapy
Taste changes can occur in people being treated for cancer with chemotherapy and/or radiation. This hand-out provides tips for managing taste changes associated with cancer and its treatment.
Food Safety and Avoiding Foodborne Illness
Food safety is important for cancer patients as they may be more susceptible to getting sick if handling, preparing or consuming unsafe foods.
Soft Diet
A soft diet is a diet that includes soft, chopped, ground, and pureed foods that can be easily mashed with a fork. They are easily chewed or don’t need to be chewed before safely swallowing them.
Loss of Appetite
Loss of appetite is when you do not feel hungry, or you have no desire or interest in eating. This can be a side effect of some treatments for cancer or from the cancer itself. This handout offers tips for coping with a loss of appetite from cancer and cancer therapy.
Small Meals and Snacks
This article is an overview of how to keep up your nutritional needs during cancer treatment.
Tips for Increasing Calories and Protein
This article provides an overview of using smaller meals and snacks to increase your calorie and protein intake during cancer treatment.
Ginger: Health Benefits and Dietary Recommendations During Cancer Treatment
This article provides an overview of the benefits of using ginger for symptom management during cancer treatment as well as how to use ginger and recommended amounts of ginger to use daily.
Protein Needs During Cancer Treatment
Discusses the importance of protein during cancer treatment, what foods contain protein and how to increase your intake of protein.
Preventing Dehydration During Cancer Treatment
Cancer treatments can lead to dehydration in some cases. Water is essential to proper functioning of the body so it is important that patients try to maintain hydration. This article provides tips to avoid dehydration and ways to increase your fluid intake.
Low Fiber Diet for Diarrhea
A low fiber diet can help control diarrhea. This article goes over which foods to eat and which foods to stay away from, especially for those with cancer or who are getting cancer treatment.
Cachexia in the Cancer Patient
Cachexia, sometimes referred to as cancer cachexia or cancer anorexia cachexia, is a wasting syndrome in which both fat and muscle are lost due to the presence of a chronic disease, such as cancer, and malnourishment (not eating enough nutrients).
Iron Rich Foods During Cancer Treatment
Iron can help with anemia (low red blood cell count) and this article can help you find ways to increase the amount you get in your diet.
Feeding Tubes: The Basics
Information about feeding tubes, which are used to supply nutrition when a person is unable to eat or absorb nutrients through the gastrointestinal (GI) tract.
Soy and Breast Cancer: Should breast cancer survivors eat soy foods?
Recommendations surrounding soy consumption by breast cancer survivors.
Nutrition Tips When Having Surgery
Good nutrition is an important part of recovery after surgery. A well balanced diet, including protein and vitamin C, helps play an important role in healing and re-building tissue after surgery.
Post-Esophagectomy Diet
Provides tips to coping with common side effects after esophagectomy, what foods to avoid and what is often well tolerated.
Supplement Use During Radiation Therapy
Many cancer patients take supplements for a variety of reasons. However, some supplements can interfere with your cancer treatment. This article will help guide you regarding the use of supplements and the importance of notifying your provider of all over the counter medications, supplements, and vitamins that you are taking.
Nutrition During Treatment for Head and Neck Cancer
A review of the diet changes commonly recommended for patients being treated for head and neck cancers.
Nutrition for People with Neuroendocrine (Carcinoid) Tumors
Many patients with neuroendocrine (carcinoid) tumors need to change their normal diet to improve symptoms of their disease. A registered dietitian nutritionist (RDN) can help you make changes to your diet to manage these symptoms.
Colon, Rectal and Anal Cancer: Frequently Asked Nutrition Questions
Answers frequently asked questions regarding certain foods, diet, and supplements for those with cancer or undergoing cancer therapy.
Pancreatic Enzyme Replacement Therapy (PERT)
Pancreatic enzymes help digest fat, protein and carbohydrates in the food you eat. Diseases that affect the pancreas can affect the amount of digestive enzymes being processed which can lead to malabsorption. This article reviews pancreatic enzyme replacement medications and how they are used.
Resources for More Information: Nutrition During Treatment
This article provides resources for navigating nutritional concerns during cancer treatment.