Suara.com – PT Kalbe Farma Tbk’s Medical Senior Manager, Dedyanto Henky Saputra, said cancer patients are very susceptible to malnutrition. This will affect many things, including cancer therapy interventions.
“Nutrition is often handled late. Usually patients have entered a very poor nutritional status so that their cancer treatment is disrupted,” said Dedy, in the Webinar “Nutrican, Special Nutrition for Cancer Fighters Support Cancer Patient Therapy”, Thursday (25/2/2021).
Malnutrition or malnutrition in cancer patients occurs due to an imbalance between nutritional needs and adequate food intake.
In general, a sign that a cancer patient is experiencing malnutrition is weight loss of at least 5% within 6 months of normal body weight.
“The impact of their muscle mass decreases. So, usually poor nutrition is preceded by a bad appetite (anorexia), then causes the muscles to shrink (cancer cachexia), if it gets worse and is not treated, it becomes a quality of life, such as mobility,” he continued.Media Gathering Event in Jakarta PT Kalbe Tbk (25/02/2021)
Dedy explained that there are many factors that cause malnutrition in cancer patients, namely:
1. Cancer cells
These cells will trigger cytokines in the patient’s body, which will suppress appetite in the brain in the hypothalamus.
“If the cytokines are high, the hypothalamus is suppressed so that the desire to eat is lost. So if we see, on the one hand the need for food increases, on the other hand there is anorexia or loss of appetite,” explained Dedy.
2. Therapy
Both radiotherapy and chemotherapy can cause side effects, such as nausea, vomiting, and mouth sores. This causes discomfort when eating.
3. Psychic
This affects the patient’s psychological condition.
“Most (believe) myths. The myths that arise, for example, ‘if a cancer patient eats, will feed the cancer cells.’ Often they become frightened so that the patient will limit their intake.
Not only that, cancer patients who are depressed can reduce the desire or motivation to recover.