Cancer surgery and nutritional challenges

Surgery is often the preferred treatment for tumours that have not spread. Through surgery, the tumour and any nearby tissue that may contain cancer cells are removed. Sometimes healthy tissue may have to be removed from around the tumour to help keep the cancer from spreading.

Whether or not surgery is used depends on the type of cancer, its location and how much it has spread to other parts of the body. More than half of cancer patients have cancer-related surgery.

If a cancer patient is malnourished or undernourished before surgery, there may be complications during recovery, such as poor healing or infection. Patients with certain cancers, such as cancers of the head, neck, stomach, and intestines, may be malnourished at diagnosis because the cancer (tumour) itself has affected nutritional intake. Nutrition care may therefore begin before surgery.

Surgery can be a temporary or permanent nutritional challenge. The operation itself will increase the body's nutritional needs: extra energy (calories) and nutrients (especially proteins) plays an important role in the recovery process, healing wounds and fighting infections.

If surgery includes the removal of all or parts of certain organs, it may affect a patient's ability to eat and digest food. For example:

  • surgery to the head and neck may cause chewing and swallowing problems. Emotional stress due to the amount of tissue removed during surgery may also affect appetite;
  • surgery involving organs in the digestive system may affect the normal function of the digestive system and may slow or interfere with the digestion of food. Removal of part of the stomach may cause a feeling of fullness before enough food has been eaten, or a dumping syndrome (rapid emptying of the contents of the stomach into the intestines). Some of the organs in the digestive system normally produce important hormones and chemicals that are necessary for digestion. If surgery affects these organs, the protein, fat, vitamins, and minerals in the diet may not be absorbed normally by the body. Levels of nutrients, such as salts and fluid in the body, may become unbalanced.

Source: National Cancer Institute, Nutrition in cancer Editorial Board