The difficulty to maintain good nutrition or "malnutrition" can cause adverse effects in patients with head, neck and oral cancer, such as treatment interruptions, delays, hospital admissions and reduced treatment success.

A study in Australia describes the high nutritional burden of patients with head, neck and oral cancer. Some patients report difficulty eating during treatment as "the battle to eat" including sore mouth, difficulty eating, numbness, taste problems and dry mouth.

These patients need special instructions and care to prevent and / or treat poor nutrition. Nutritionists are trained and can advise and guide nutritional care in collaboration with speech therapists, nurses, and physicians, and will help improve patients' eating experiences.

Source: https://curecancer.eu/

See the study. The experience of nutritional care according to patients with head and neck cancer involved with a combined dietitian, specialist nurse and speech pathologist clinic in a regional Australia: a quantitative longitudinal study. Supportive Care in Cancer 2021; 29: 4329-4337.