Most of the 1036 cancer patients in a nationwide survey in Denmark favoured vegetables and low calorie food, explained Dr. A. Bonde Jensen, of Copenhagen University Hospital. But cancer patients' dietary needs may change according to the stage of their disease. Underweight patients may be encouraged to eat fatty foods and snack whenever they feel the urge to eat because being significantly underweight may be a bigger threat to recovery than the distant risk of stroke or a heart attack.
Conversely, patients well on the way to recovery may be advised to eat a traditional healthy diet - with plenty of fruit and vegetables, more fish and chicken and less red meat, foods high in natural fibre, less sugar and salt and moderate amounts of alcohol.
Speaking at the ECCO 11 - the European Cancer Conference in Lisbon, Dr. Jensen highlighted the need to improve dietary counselling for cancer patients in hospital. Carried out with two colleagues the survey established that: -
Confusion about what is best for cancer patients may be related to the idea that a healthy diet can reduce the risk of getting cancer. This is now universally accepted. The question as to whether diet can affect the course of an established cancer is more controversial. But specialists agree that underweight cancer patients should avoid slimming diets.
Dr. Jensen said: "There is a need for more knowledge about nutritional aspects in cancer diseases, especially when the disease has metastasized (spread to other organs), both among patients and health care providers. Today the quality of life of patients is too often further compromised by inappropriate food intake.”
Abstract No. 1038
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