There's a Panda in my Bellybutton

Nutrition and Hydration To coincide with National Nutrition and Hydration week, I thought it would be good to share with you Ryan’s experience of malnutrition as a result of his lymphoma diagnosis. Malnutrition is a common problem among patients with cancer, affecting up to 85% of patients with certain cancers. In severe cases, malnutrition can progress to cachexia, a specific form of malnutrition characterised by loss of lean body mass, muscle wasting, and impaired immune, physical and mental function. Cancer cachexia is also associated with poor response to therapy, increased susceptibility to treatment-related adverse events, as well as poor outcome and quality of life. Cancer cachexia is a complex, multifactorial syndrome, which is thought to result from the actions of both host and tumour-derived factors, including cytokines involved in a systemic inflammatory response to a tumour. Early intervention with nutritional supplementation has been shown to halt malnutrition and may