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Study of Four-Stage Diet to Help Cancer Patients with Partial Bowel Blockage

Published on: 28 Apr, 2021
Updated on: 30 Apr, 2021

The Royal Surrey County Hospital has started a study of a four-stage diet, now being trialled, designed to boost food intake for cancer patients unable to eat normally due to bowel blockage.

This will investigate whether the diet can help reduce the cancer-related symptoms and enable these to benefit more from the nutrients in their food and drinks.

Depending on the degree of obstruction, patients follow one of the stages, clear fluids, all liquids, puree or soft sloppy foods, all low in fibre.

They can move up and down the stages depending on how they feel on the day, for example, if someone is having abdominal pain or vomiting, they are advised to step back to clear fluids.

The diet is the brainchild of Mrs Lindsey Allan, a Macmillan oncology dietitian from Royal Surrey NHS Foundation Trust. She was inspired by a patient to develop the diet to improve care for this group of cancer patients at the trust, a large referral centre for them.

Mrs Allan based the diet on evidence and recommendations for Crohn’s disease because the problems suffered by people with these two conditions are similar.

She said: “We know how important good nutrition is to help patients through surgery and cancer treatment. It is also important for patients who aren’t able to have surgery.

“The wrong diet can aggravate symptoms such as bloating, feeling full up quickly, feeling sick, vomiting and pain after eating. If we can help them get their diet right, we can improve their quality of life and even potentially extend it.

“I have already been recommending this diet to my patients but we haven’t done any studies to prove it helps.”

The study, launched in March, is funded by GUTs Fighting Bowel Cancer Charity and supported by the National Institute of Health Research. It aims to investigate if patients can reduce their symptoms of bowel obstruction by following the different stages of the diet.

The research team also want to see if the diet is easy to follow, can improve quality of life, and if it can reduce admissions to hospital because of bowel blockages.

Mrs Allan and her co-investigator Dr Agniezska Michael, a consultant oncologist at the Royal Surrey, hope to recruit 30 patients with inoperable gynae-oncology or colorectal cancer diagnosed with partial bowel obstruction either caused by disease spread to the peritoneum or who have a primary tumour causing a blockage.

Participants will be recruited over a maximum of two years from Royal Surrey and Frimley Park Hospital.

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