When diagnosed with cancer, loss of appetite may seem a relatively minor issue. But without adequate nutrition, your body is less able to cope with both the cancer and its treatment– reducing the chance of a successful treatment⁶. Ensuring good nutrition and avoiding weight loss is therefore an essential part of a patient’s treatment and recovery plan.

Changes in taste and smell are more than just an unpleasant side effect of cancer treatment. They can stop you eating a healthy balanced diet, potentially leading to weight loss and even malnutrition – at a time when your body needs to be at its strongest.

Keeping physically strong during cancer can be tough; the side effects of the disease and its treatment can take a toll on the body, negatively affecting appetite, the way we taste food and even the way our body absorbs nutrients. For many cancer patients (30-80%⁵) this leads to weight loss. Importantly, the majority of the weight lost by cancer patients is muscle⁷ – or ‘lean body mass’ – the protective tissue needed to keep the body strong and withstand treatment. Losing a significant amount of weight can even delay treatment^8-9.

Weight loss during cancer, particularly loss of lean body mass, can have a negative impact on the health of a patient, increasing the rate of complications and affecting the success of both treatment and recovery^9-11. It is therefore important that cancer patients maintain weight to give themselves the best chance possible. When eating and drinking become difficult due to the disease and/or treatment side effects, medical nutrition may be prescribed by a healthcare professional and can help by delivering all the nutrition a patient needs to support weight^12-14.