Time is of the essence in cancer. The sooner it is detected, the better the chances of survival. Self-treatment can often make some foods unpalatable, but an aversion to certain foods can already be a warning sign. Research proves it.
- Cancer is the leading cause of death worldwide. For this reason, 10 million people lose their lives each year
- In Poland, cancer is the second leading cause of death among Poles, right after cardiovascular disease
- Nearly 2020 died of cancer in Poland in 109. people, of which 92 percent. were malignant tumors. This means that almost 300 people lose their lives in Poland every day due to cancer
- The most common cancer in women is breast cancer and in men the lung cancer
- The data collected in the 2022 National Health Test show that cancer has ever been diagnosed in 5 percent. adult Poles
- You can find more such stories on the TvoiLokony home page
Cancer changes our taste
The very treatment of cancer causes that some dishes just do not taste like they used to or we do not feel like eating them at all. Or, as the study by Dr. Thurstan Brewin shows, several cancers cause a strong aversion to certain foods. Changes in taste were noted in as many as one in four patients.
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Dr. Brewin’s study focused on alcohol intolerance and changes in taste in cancer patients. He noted that reluctance could be a manifestation of several types of cancer. In a report published in the journal Clinical Radiology, he drew attention to frequent dietary aversions.
«For two men with lung cancer, the sausages became unpalatable. One said it happened two years before the diagnosis, the other said three years before the diagnosis. For one, they lost their flavor, they were like skin, for the other they became too aromatic »- comments the results of the Brewin study.
In turn – as Brewin continues – two women with cervical cancer felt aversion to eating eggs. One six years and the other four months before the disease is detected. A few months after the therapy, the taste returned to this product. It was the same with the cheese. One man, 44, for whom eating cheese at one point became like “eating chewing gum” also felt the urge to do it after undergoing therapy. The respondents also assessed that the “most unpleasant” was the taste of the tea.
Taste changes cause lumps in the head and neck area
The American Cancer Society explains that the changes in taste are usually caused by bumps growing in the head and neck area. Prompt therapy is all the more important as changes in taste can eventually lead to malnutrition.
«Changes in taste perception are especially important in diseases such as cancer, which is one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide. The altered taste perception in cancer patients is usually ignored by clinicians because this aspect is not life threatening, ‘wrote the researchers in a report published in the journal Frontiers in Physiology in 2017.
At the same time, they stressed that the change in taste could be an “alarming early symptom” of cancer cell invasion in patients.
“The most disturbing symptoms in patients with advanced cancer are gastrointestinal abnormalities, while a change in taste is the fourth most common symptom after dry mouth, weight loss and early satiety,” commented.
Data from the 2022 National Health Test
Although Dr. Brewin has reported an aversion to taste in a quarter of his patients, larger-scale studies estimate that about 15 out of 100 patients suffer from some degree of taste disturbance.
Scientists suggest that disturbances in the gut microflora may be responsible for changes in taste in cancer patients.
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