Battling Cancer

Anorexia is a loss of appetite, not to be confused with anorexia nervosa, a psychiatric condition.

Cachexia is the loss of weight and muscle mass that leads to wasting away.

While these conditions are often grouped together as Anorexia Cachexia Syndrome or Cancer Cachexia, they may also present independently.

Cachexia can be diagnosed without anorexia, as an involuntary failure of the body to absorb nutrients due to a cancer tumor or complications of the disease process or therapies. It is a life threatening syndrome, and per Nutrition in Clinical Practice, it is “estimated that one third of all cancer patients die from cachexia rather than the tumor burden itself.”

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Nutrition therapy for cancer patients runs a spectrum of definitions which include:

• maintaining the body’s immune system to keep a cancer patient in optimal condition, which will prevent an increase in hospital time while implementing traditional therapies

• a nutritional cancer prevention plan and post cancer nutrition plan

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