Palliative care is described by the World Health Organization (WHO) as the total active care of patients whose disease is not responsive to curative treatment. Cancer and its treatments cause a wide range of side effects that impact on a patient's ability toeat. Malnutrition, due to advanced cancer, is almost always irreversible and nutritional repletion is usually not possible. Symptom control can enable patients to enjoy many aspects of eating. Skilled professionals, who understand both the psychological and metabolic consequences of the disease are needed to complete a nutritional assessment and to design a care plan to meet the individual needs of each patient. In palliative care, the goal shifts from nutrition repletion to improving the patient's quality of life. Food is more than nutrition.
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Arbolino et al. (2000) studied this question.