During radiation therapy, you may face weakness, fatigue, loss of energy, poor appetite, and a lot of discomfort with your usual diet and routine. Here are some suggestions for daily living that you need to be aware of during radiation therapy.
What do you need to pay attention to in terms of diet?
Radiotherapy can damage the mucosa of the esophagus and trigger radiation esophagitis, which can make you feel more choked when you eat or drink, especially when you eat dry, hard, or hot, spicy foods, and may be painful.
The outcome of treatment for esophageal cancer is closely related to nutritional status. Therefore, during treatment, you need to pay extra attention to your diet and try to not lose weight.
1. If you can eat by mouth, you should eat mainly natural foods with a balanced nutritional profile. The daily diet should include staples, vegetables, meat, and fruit.
A light, soft or semi-liquid or liquid diet should be eaten during radiation therapy, with less spicy, irritating, and hot foods, such as chili peppers, hot porridge, barbecued or fried foods, to reduce irritation to the esophageal mucosa. Do not eat foods that are too hard and difficult to digest, such as coarse and hard vegetables and mixed grains.
Consider the “three highs and one low” principle in your diet: high in fiber, high in protein, high in calories, and low in fat. If you don’t have high blood pressure, diabetes, or gout, you can eat chicken, fish, meat, eggs, milk, vegetables, and fruits.
2. During radiation therapy, your eating difficulties may be further exacerbated by the edema that occurs when the esophagus is exposed to radiation. Therefore, if natural foods do not meet your nutritional needs, enteral nutrition may be used under the guidance of your doctor. Its ingredients are derived from natural foods, non-toxic to the body and mobile.
3. If oral enteral nutrition is still not enough to meet your nutritional needs, a gastric tube can be placed and fluid food can be instilled to further ensure nutrition; nutrition can also be supplemented by intravenous infusion, but this method is not recommended for long-term use.
4. As the number of radiation treatments increases, you may experience a decrease in appetite. To maintain essential nutrients, you may take oral nutrition solutions as directed by your doctor. You will also need to engage in appropriate activities to increase your appetite. It is recommended that your family members try to change the way you cook your meals and add color and flavor to your food to improve your appetite. Your doctor may also prescribe medications such as megestrol to help improve your appetite.
What do I need to do to get up and about? Can I shower and exercise?
During treatment, you will need to get plenty of rest, but you are not required to stay home for the entire time. You can travel as much as you like with less adverse effects, but do not overexert yourself. For older adults who are not in good health, the tumor itself and radiation therapy may cause malnutrition and decreased cardiopulmonary function, and you are not advised to exercise a lot; you can stay active in small amounts, preferably with lots of rest.
During radiation therapy, your chest is usually marked with a positioning line drawn in skin ink, which is an important reference mark for radiation therapy and should be protected with special care. You can usually shower during radiation therapy, but you should be careful to protect the lines. However, please rest assured that the positioning lines are marked with special skin ink and will usually not be washed off with water as long as you do not scrub hard. If the markers are blurred after bathing, you should ask your supervising physician to make up the markers in time.
During radiation therapy, acute radiation dermatitis may occur in the skin of the chest and back irradiated areas. It is recommended not to rub the skin in this area and not to use harsh toiletries, but to rinse with water only.
After the end of radiation therapy, the radiation effect remains for a certain period of time, when care should be taken to prevent colds and reduce the incidence of radiation pneumonia. The skin of the irradiated area should be protected from exposure to the sun, and should not be scratched or taped.
Co-written by: Dr. Rong Yu Dr. Jing You, Peking University Cancer Hospital