Incidence of Eating Problems, Taste Changes and Food Preference of Cancer Patients During Radiotherapy

摘要

Radiotherapy can be an important component of cancer treatment for cure, prolongation of life or pain control; however, it has clinical limitations due to its adverse effects, mainly damage to normal tissues. The side-effects of cancer treatment further compromise nutritional status. There are few reports about the incidence of eating problem during radiotherapy. Considering the importance of symptoms on quality of life and nutritional status, the present study was conducted to determine the occurrence of eating problems, food preferences on body weight and dietary intake for patients with cancer treated with radiotherapy during treatment. During the period of October to March 2005, 61 (38 males and 23 females) volunteers cancer patients with mean age of 53±16 years who referred to the radiotherapy center of Imam Khomeini hospital were recruited. Changes of mouth dryness, appetite loss, nausea, hypoguesia, dysphagia,?, taste changes and food preferences were determined by questionnaire before and during radiotherapy. Changes in dietary intake (using 24 h recall method) and body weight were evaluated prior to and during radiotherapy. Incidence of anorexia, dry mouth, mouth sores, hyposmia, hypoguesia, dysphagia increased significantly during radiotherapy (p< 0.05). Patients didn?t tend to eat hard food and high animal protein food (meat and liver) more frequently as RT progressed especially during the first 3 weeks of treatment. Incidence of bitter taste in the mouth of patients increased during radiotherapy. In our study eating problem affected weight loss and dietary intake significantly (p = 0.007, ? = 0.452 and p = 0.001, ? = 0.563). Because of the negative effect of radiotherapy on oral feeding, daily assessment of side -effects, symptom support and nutritional advice adjusted to the individual patient are parts of adequate nutritional care.