Nutritional Intervention and the Need of Diet Counselling in Oncology Patients

Nutrition and diet counselling have a key role in the management of cancer patients because there are strong evidences that the main cause for all cancer deaths is related to diet. It has been noticed that cancer cachexia which is a specific form of cancer associated malnutrition occurs in (80 %) of the patients and is responsible for (20 %) of cancer related deaths. Cancer patients experience malnutrition, significant weight loss due to decreased food intake, anorexia, vomiting, diarrhea, constipation, mucositis, dysphagia and pain due to cancer treatment related side effects thereby affecting overall quality of life. Dietary modification is necessary to reduce or eliminate these side effects. Nutritional intervention should be actively managed and provided for each patient throughout the course of treatment.