Cancer, Chemotherapy, Weightloss and Appetite?

Hello from Madison Wisconsin. This past spring my Father was diagnosed
with lung cancer. Shortly after his diagnosis he began a regiment of
Taxol chemotherapy. Prior to his diagnosis he began loosing weight and
more recently, after several months of chemotherapy he has been loosing
weight at an alarming rate. My mother is the primary caregiver and is
doing her best to try and fix him food that he requests, but more often
than not he only picks at his food or simply won't eat. When he has
visitors during mealtime he seems to eat more, but when he's left
alone with my mother he simply stops eating. This situation is
difficult to understand because we can see that he will eat when he is
pressured by and in the company of his family (my sister and I) but as
soon as we leave the situation changes. It seems like both a physical
and emotional element are at play here.

I look forward to your comments and suggestions. Thanks very much, Ben

klicksights wrote:
> Hello from Madison Wisconsin. This past spring my Father was diagnosed
> with lung cancer. Shortly after his diagnosis he began a regiment of
> Taxol chemotherapy. Prior to his diagnosis he began loosing weight and
> more recently, after several months of chemotherapy he has been loosing
> weight at an alarming rate. My mother is the primary caregiver and is
> doing her best to try and fix him food that he requests, but more often
> than not he only picks at his food or simply won't eat. When he has
> visitors during mealtime he seems to eat more, but when he's left
> alone with my mother he simply stops eating. This situation is
> difficult to understand because we can see that he will eat when he is
> pressured by and in the company of his family (my sister and I) but as
> soon as we leave the situation changes. It seems like both a physical
> and emotional element are at play here.
>
> I look forward to your comments and suggestions. Thanks very much, Ben

Hello, Ben, & welcome,

I can share similar-sounding problems my husband experienced with his
lung cancer & things that seemed to help. First, he always liked spicy
foods & heaping portions before cancer. When he had appetite problems,
he ate much better when presented with very small portions of simple
foods. Fruits were a favorite, particularly cantulope & berries, so I
got him going with a good breakfast. He needed his food to be moist &
juicy or it seemed to stick going down.

He liked bar type snacks like hot wings (now they were spicy) & salads.
I'd sometimes put out a little bowl of grapes or cut up an apple with
caramel sauce or pears with chocolate sauce for dipping. Larger things
overwhelmed. Except Thanksgiving dinner which he scarfed right up.

In the end, he stopped eating most foods except vast quantities of
whole milk & ice cream, particularly Rocky Road. He wanted milk with
all meds & it did seem to cushion the blow. He drank some of the
fortified juice products hospice brought & preferred them to the
chocolate/vanilla/strawberry Ensure type stuff.

He did eat a lot more on cruise ships (don't we all). Maybe they
could go out to lunch sometimes to vary the routine.

Hope this helps,
Fig

klicksights wrote:

> Hello from Madison Wisconsin. This past spring my Father was diagnosed
> with lung cancer. Shortly after his diagnosis he began a regiment of
> Taxol chemotherapy. Prior to his diagnosis he began loosing weight and
> more recently, after several months of chemotherapy he has been loosing
> weight at an alarming rate. My mother is the primary caregiver and is
> doing her best to try and fix him food that he requests, but more often
> than not he only picks at his food or simply won't eat. When he has
> visitors during mealtime he seems to eat more, but when he's left
> alone with my mother he simply stops eating. This situation is
> difficult to understand because we can see that he will eat when he is
> pressured by and in the company of his family (my sister and I) but as
> soon as we leave the situation changes. It seems like both a physical
> and emotional element are at play here.
>
> I look forward to your comments and suggestions. Thanks very much, Ben

Hello Ben,
Most lung cancers are diagnosed late, so unless I hear otherwise, I'd
assume it's the cancer.
J

On 6 Nov 2006 11:45:35 -0800, "klicksights" <ben@klicksights.com>
wrotF:

>Hello from Madison Wisconsin. This past spring my Father was diagnosed
>with lung cancer. Shortly after his diagnosis he began a regiment of
>Taxol chemotherapy. Prior to his diagnosis he began loosing weight and
>more recently, after several months of chemotherapy he has been loosing
>weight at an alarming rate. My mother is the primary caregiver and is
>doing her best to try and fix him food that he requests, but more often
>than not he only picks at his food or simply won't eat. When he has
>visitors during mealtime he seems to eat more, but when he's left
>alone with my mother he simply stops eating. This situation is
>difficult to understand because we can see that he will eat when he is
>pressured by and in the company of his family (my sister and I) but as
>soon as we leave the situation changes. It seems like both a physical
>and emotional element are at play here.
>
>I look forward to your comments and suggestions. Thanks very much, Ben


This brings up an interesting question that I have not seen answered
anywhere.

I've watched some people with some advanced cancers lose weight EVEN
THOUGH they continue to eat at their previous level and perhaps with
diet changes, actually take in more calories than previously.

So why the weight loss? Does having cancer change the body's
metabolism? Are tumors "steal" nutrition?

Anybody?

Yes, cancer eats up the fat cells first and then goes after the muscle.
There is a capsule or pill form of pot that is perfectly legal and does
help the appetite though it is expensive if your ins. won't pay for it.
Walmart sells an inexpensive whey protein powder that works well for
helping keep muscle mass and improves appetite. It's about $12 for a big
gallon jug which lasts a while. It comes in vanilla or choc. I use both.
the vanilla I use with milk for cereal or OJ for a creamsicle type
drink. Boost also makes fruit juice drinks loaded with vitamins and
minerals. You can also purchase hemp protien bars or hemp protien powder
(mixes well with low salt V8 juice) very reasoable on amazon with free
shipping on orders over $25. Hemp protien is excellent for the body.If
he can tolerate milk, adding a little powdered milk to most things will
help too. You'd be surprised at how many things you cook it can be added
too without changing the taste much. Try and serve high calorie, high
carb foods for max weight gain & energy. But be mindful of the
cholesterol While eating healthy is important, you must balance a
healthy diet against the usefulness of what you eat and the goal of the
food. If the goal is health, eat healthy. If the goal is to prevent
anymore weight loss, load up the carbs, calories and protien.
Statisticaly more cancer patients die from malnutrition than from the
cancer. If you have cancer being overweight aint always a bad thing.
Fresh fruits, veggies and grains while they are very good for you, they
also pass pretty much straight through you. Always eat them first so
they process first then eat the other stuff that takes longer to digest
this way they pass through fast and the sugars in them don't ferment and
putrify in your gut

Group: alt.support.cancer Date: Fri, Nov 10, 2006, 3:33pm (EST+5) From:
somebody@spamless.net (46erjoe)

This brings up an interesting question that I have not seen answered
anywhere.
I've watched some people with some advanced cancers lose weight EVEN
THOUGH they continue to eat at their previous level and perhaps with
diet changes, actually take in more calories than previously.
So why the weight loss? Does having cancer change the body's metabolism?
Are tumors "steal" nutrition?
Anybody?

J W wrote:

> Yes, cancer eats up the fat cells first and then goes after the muscle.
> There is a capsule or pill form of pot that is perfectly legal and does
> help the appetite though it is expensive if your ins. won't pay for it.
> Walmart sells an inexpensive whey protein powder that works well for
> helping keep muscle mass and improves appetite. It's about $12 for a big
> gallon jug which lasts a while. It comes in vanilla or choc. I use both.
> the vanilla I use with milk for cereal or OJ for a creamsicle type
> drink. Boost also makes fruit juice drinks loaded with vitamins and
> minerals. You can also purchase hemp protien bars or hemp protien powder
> (mixes well with low salt V8 juice) very reasoable on amazon with free
> shipping on orders over $25. Hemp protien is excellent for the body.If
> he can tolerate milk, adding a little powdered milk to most things will
> help too. You'd be surprised at how many things you cook it can be added
> too without changing the taste much. Try and serve high calorie, high
> carb foods for max weight gain & energy. But be mindful of the
> cholesterol While eating healthy is important, you must balance a
> healthy diet against the usefulness of what you eat and the goal of the
> food. If the goal is health, eat healthy. If the goal is to prevent
> anymore weight loss, load up the carbs, calories and protien.
> Statisticaly more cancer patients die from malnutrition than from the
> cancer. If you have cancer being overweight aint always a bad thing.
> Fresh fruits, veggies and grains while they are very good for you, they
> also pass pretty much straight through you. Always eat them first so
> they process first then eat the other stuff that takes longer to digest
> this way they pass through fast and the sugars in them don't ferment and
> putrify in your gut

It takes muscles to eat and digest.
J

46erjoe wrote:

> This brings up an interesting question that I have not seen answered
> anywhere.
>
> I've watched some people with some advanced cancers lose weight EVEN
> THOUGH they continue to eat at their previous level and perhaps with
> diet changes, actually take in more calories than previously.
>
> So why the weight loss? Does having cancer change the body's
> metabolism? Are tumors "steal" nutrition?

The cancer chemicals cause the fatigue and the patient becomes too tired to
eat.
That and other causes are mentioned here:
http://www.cancerhelp.org.uk/help/de...asp?page=10435
(and it does say "some")

And they say that breast and prostate cancer patients don't necessarily lose
weight.
My thoughts are that applies to those whose cancers have only spread to the
bone, but I shouldn't generalize.

One of the chemicals is called ghrelin
Ghrelin levels are also high in patients who have cancer-induced cachexia
(Garcia et al 2005).

There was a gastro doc on TV some weeks ago talking about ghrelin and
leptin.
Leptin is a 16 kDa protein hormone that plays a key role in regulating
energy intake and energy expenditure, including the regulation of appetite
and metabolism.
* It circulates at levels proportional to body fat.
* It enters the central nervous system (CNS) in proportion to its plasma
concentration.
* Its receptors are found in brain neurons involved in regulating energy
intake and expenditure.
(that last bit of sentences are from wikipedia).

There's an article here called "Manifestations of Cachexia" by clicking on
it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cachexia

J

This is not a complete mystery.....several links

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/q...dopt=Abstract\

http://www.cancerhelp.org.uk/help/de...10428#cachexia


When I worked in hospice we told familes not to make eating ( or lack of it
an issue).