How to eat healthy after chemotherapy for bladder tumor

  Bladder cancer is the most common urological malignancy, accounting for the 4th highest incidence of malignancy in men and the 7th highest in women in the United States, with 72,570 new cases of bladder cancer in the United States in 2013, including 15,210 deaths. Clinical statistics in China show that the incidence of bladder cancer remains the highest among urologic tumors, with an incidence rate of 14.72/100,000 for men and 5.34/100,000 for women. The cost of bladder cancer treatment in the United States is the most expensive of all tumors, with an average cost of $202,000 per bladder patient, twice the cost of lung cancer. The latest information shows that in the United States in 2010 the cost of treatment for bladder cancer was $3.98 billion.  Bladder tumors are treated with surgery and radiotherapy, but during treatment, especially during chemotherapy, patients are often prone to varying degrees of toxic side effects, leading to malnutrition. Toxic reactions of chemotherapy drugs can cause ulcers in the mucous membrane of the digestive tract, producing symptoms such as lip inflammation, tongue inflammation, anorexia, vomiting, constipation or diarrhea. Patients have psychological reactions after learning of their illness, producing abnormal emotions such as anxiety, depression, fear and anger, and experiencing loss of appetite, difficulty in feeding and eating too little, all of which can lead to the consequences of malnutrition.  Post-chemotherapy diet Post-chemotherapy patients often cause discomfort in the digestive tract, and show loss of appetite, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, bone marrow suppression and other manifestations. Patients with loss of appetite should be instructed to change their cooking methods frequently and pay attention to the color and aroma to increase their appetite, with stewing and steaming as the main food and less sweet, greasy, spicy and fried food. At the same time, avoid smoking and alcohol, avoid the stimulation of strong odors; constipated people can eat more fresh vegetables and fruits rich in vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin E, as well as brown rice, beans and other foods containing coarse fiber, drink more water or juice, and prohibit the consumption of chili, ginger, wine and other stimulating foods; patients with myelosuppression to prevent and reduce the decline of red blood cells, white blood cells, platelets and hemoglobin caused by myelosuppression, should eat Pork, duck, fish and red dates, peanuts and other foods.  Overall dietary advice Patients with bladder tumor need to eat fresh vegetables and fruits often. Unfresh foods contain nitrite, which is easily converted into strong carcinogenic nitrosamines in the gastrointestinal tract. The vitamin C in fresh vegetables and fruits can inhibit the synthesis of nitrosamines in human body; meanwhile, the pectin and flavonoids in fruits also have cancer prevention effects.  Don’t eat too fine food, and often eat vegetarian food with high fiber. Animal fat in meat contains a lot of saturated fatty acid, which is not only likely to cause high cholesterol and cardiovascular diseases, but also has the potential to cause cancer. Vegetarian food can purify the blood and prevent constipation and hemorrhoids. The diet should be light. The word “light” not only means less oil, but also less salt. Excessive salt in food can easily damage the mucus layer on the surface of the gastric mucosa, causing damage to the gastric mucosa and loss of barrier function, which makes it easy for carcinogens to invade and increase the incidence of gastric cancer. Therefore, pickled and waxy products must be eaten sparingly or not at all. In the winter months, people in some places like to make preserved fish and bacon, which are much safer if they are combined with vegetables rich in vitamin C, such as bell pepper, broccoli, pea shoots, celery, bok choy, bitter gourd and bean curd.  A healthy diet can not only reduce the occurrence of cancer at the root, enhance the body’s ability to resist cancer and promote the recovery of body tissues affected by cancer, but also improve the tolerance ability of tumor patients to radiotherapy and reduce their toxic side effects, thus improving their chances of survival. Therefore, a healthy diet is very important for tumor patients, which helps them build up courage and confidence to overcome the disease, change the old concept of “cancer equals death”, and accept various anti-tumor treatments more actively.