Involuntary loss of weight and muscle tone, lack of appetite, irregularities in intestinal function: “These are all alarm bells that must warn the patient and their doctor, because these signs often anticipate the diagnosis of the disease by a few months I say this because very often weight loss for cancer patients is considered an inevitable fact, it is not inevitable and it is not even normal as some people say, it is simply very frequent, due to the oncological pathology. and the treatments they must undergo. So it is essential to intercept these ‘spy’ signals in time.” Maurizio Muscaritoli, full professor of internal medicine at the Department of Precision Translational Medicine of the La Sapienza University of Rome, told Adnkronos Salute on the occasion of the conference ‘Health to the Fullest – Alongside patients between prevention, innovation and sustainability’, promoted by Abbott today in Rome. The meeting, which was held at the Roman Aquarium, was attended by the main health stakeholders, including representatives of the institutions and the academic world.
“Malnutrition, i.e. involuntary weight loss in the majority of cancer patients, is a significant problem – explains Muscaritoli – even if it is talked about too little. There is not much awareness of what the conditions of this weight loss are , linked both to the presence of the disease, but also to the treatments themselves which can interfere with normal nutrition or the absorption of nutrients”. So the problem exists, even “if it is represented differently depending on the type of tumor. There are some patients – underlines Muscaritoli – for example with cancer of the gastrointestinal tract, more subject to a strong loss of weight and muscle mass than other patients However, during the course of chemotherapy, there may be weight loss linked to the presence of nausea and symptoms that interfere with normal nutrition.”
Despite the difficulty of these patients, “preventing weight loss and loss of muscle mass, which then means loss of ability to carry out normal daily functions, is possible. Provided – warns the specialist – that awareness of the problem within the medical profession and healthcare professionals who deal with the treatment of cancer patients. Early interception of the mechanisms that interfere with nutrition, and therefore determine weight loss, is therefore essential for cancer patients to come taken care of from a metabolic and nutritional point of view from the moment of diagnosis, so as to be able to start a nutritional therapy which – also with the help of foods for special medical purposes scientifically formulated to provide energy, proteins and other nutrients such as Omega3 or HMB – allows the patient to face the therapeutic path in an optimal way”, he concludes.
