When to Feed the Cancer Patient?

Cancer patients are at a high risk of malnutrition and malnutrition compromises their physical and mental capacity which often leads to suboptimal treatment. 34% of patients are admitted to the oncology unit with risk of malnutrition and throughout the treatment the portion of patients leaving the unit with a risk of malnutrition is greater than when they came in highlighting the importance of trying to maintain patient’s weight.Jens Kondrup summarizes findings of systematic reviews of feeding of the cancer patient. Included in the findings is the beneficial effect of nutritional support on quality of life in many groups of cancer patients.Nutritional support has positive effects in perioperative trials (immunonutrition) and a few studies show effect on survival. Furthermore, Preventing weight loss in hospital is “doable”.