To complicate matters more, cancer clients often have little interest in eating. They experience nausea and vomiting, feel full quickly, and do not taste many foods normally. These symptoms may be caused by the cancer or by the treatment, which may include radiation, chemotherapy, and surgery. Good nutritional status is important to withstand the effects of treatment. In radiation therapy, high-energy rays are used to destroy cancerous tissues and stop the growth of cancer cells.
Chemotherapy is the treatment of cancer using drugs.
Some effects of radiation therapy and chemotherapy include nausea, vomiting, taste alterations, diarrhea, malabsorption, and reduced salivary secretions in the case of radiation treatment of the head and neck. Clients on high calorie, high protein diets are better able to withstand these side effects than clients who are not. Surgery is another major approach to treating cancer. In many clients, the tumor is discovered before it has spread and it may be cured by surgically cutting it out. Some common cancers in which surgery is used are those of the stomach and intestines.