Cancer Nutrition
The incidence of cancer in India was estimated to be around 1.4 million cases in 2018. Cancer contributes to 8.3% of all deaths in India. Recent developments in medicine have resulted in early recognition and treatment of many malignancies. Numerous patients with cancer are getting effective and curative treatments. The mainstay of cancer treatment involves chemotherapy, radiation, and surgery. Cancer treatments can cause complications such as mucositis, esophagitis, gastritis, and enteritis, causing nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, diarrhea, and often malabsorption. Typically, treatment modalities in cancer impair the patient’s capacity to maintain adequate nutrition. The overall incidence of malnutrition in cancer ranges between 30 and 85% of different populations studied.
One of the major challenges in the clinical management of a cancer patient is maintaining adequate nutrition during treatment. In addition, it is not uncommon for cancer therapies to severely impair a patient’s nutritional status.