Background: It is recognised that both nutritional status and an improper diet have significant effects on weakening the outcomes of treatment in cancer patients. As a result, a lowered response to therapy and an increase in untoward side effects is often observed leading to a deteriorating quality of life. The role of an adequately balanced diet is thus regarded as being vital in supporting recovery.
Objective: To assess the dietary consumption of calories, macro-elements and selected vitamins and minerals for subjects diagnosed with cancers of the breast, lungs and bones or soft tissue.
Material and methods: A survey was performed on 100 subjects diagnosed with various tumours between the September and December months of 2011 consisting of 34 with breast cancer, 33 lung cancer and 33 with bone or soft tissue cancer. The questionnaire was devised in-house, which included a three day dietary record. Results. The average daily calorific intake was found to be inadequate at 1608 kcal. In addition, abnormal proportions of energy derived from macro-elements was seen, where the contributions made by fats and proteins were somewhat high at respectively 35.1% and 16.5%, but too low in the case of carbohydrates at 52.1%. Up to 78% subjects had insufficient protein intakes, 88% showed deficiencies in consuming carbohydrates, as were 89% for fibre, 85% vitamin C, 99% calcium, 98% magnesium and 81% for iron.
Conclusions: Many dietary shortcomings were observed in the studied subjects. There is therefore a need to educate persons suffering from cancer to adopt an adequate and balanced diet as means of providing vital support for treatment to be more effective.