Making patients and medical staff aware of the importance of nutrition in patients undergoing radiotherapy for head and neck cancer could substantially reduce the number of hospitalisations due to weight loss.
Head and neck radiotherapy is commonly associated with weight loss sometimes so serious that patients require in-hospital care. Compared to prostate cancer patients, who show minimal or no weight loss over a five week radiotherapy period, head and neck patients may suffer up to a mean 6 Kg decrease in body weight.
“Weight goes down because head and neck irradiated patients find it difficult to eat or swallow, etc.,” explained Ann Norlin, Nursing Officer in the department of oncology, University Hospital Linköping, in Linköping, Sweden, speaking here Sept. 18th at the 21st annual meeting of the European Society for Therapeutic Radiation and Oncology (ESTRO). “This weight loss could be avoided if patients and staff were more aware of the importance of additive nutrition during radiotherapy.”
תגובות רוצה להצטרף לדיון?
יש להתחבר כדי להגיב.
התחבראין תגובות עדיין. היה הראשון להגיב!