Nourishing Hope: Five Essential Nutrition Tips for Patients With Pancreatic Cancer

Pancreatic cancer carries poor overall survival. A high percentage of patients with pancreatic cancer experience a significant amount of weight loss at the time of diagnosis even before starting treatments. Nutritional status and maintaining proper nutrition can be extremely challenging due to multiple factors. Malnutrition can lead to a poorer quality of life, worsening of symptoms, and inability to complete planned treatments, leading to worse clinical outcomes. Evaluating nutritional status and implementing a plan early is essential. Having a good multidisciplinary team and partnering with a registered dietitian should be an integral part of patient care. Nutrition education for clinical teams, patients, and caregivers can help keep patients feeling better and on track with care. Patients should be screened early and routinely for malnutrition, dehydration, and exocrine pancreatic insufficiency. Managing side effects of the disease and engaging patients' caregivers are important to maintaining good nutrition and improving quality of life.