Ensuring you receive adequate nutrition after head and neck cancer treatment can be difficult.
Changes to your swallowing may mean you require a special diet or a feeding tube. Dry mouth, changes in taste, and difficulty opening the mouth can make eating difficult. You may also have lost a significant amount of weight during treatment, or have very little desire to eat. Please refer to the resources below to learn more about addressing your nutritional needs during and after cancer treatment.
You can also refer to the Swallowing resource section for more strategies specific to swallowing, or the Sensation section for changes in taste.
Resources for enhancing nutrition during and after cancer treatment
- Head and Neck: Supporting You Through Treatment (University Health Network)
Patients are usually booked in this class during first or second week of treatment. To reschedule the class please call 416-946-4501 x2187 - Managing the side effects of chemotherapy
- Increasing calories and protein in your diet
- Managing weight loss after cancer treatment
- Managing weight gain after cancer treatment
- Life after cancer treatment
- Getting Back on Track: Life After Treatment for Head and Neck Cancer (class)
Registration required; 416-946-2206 - Eating Well When You Have Cancer
- Eating tips for Sore Mouth and Throat
- Goes Down Easy (full version): Recipes to help you cope with the challenge of eating during cancer treatment. Available at the Princess Margaret Patient and Family Library, Amazon.ca or Indigo/Chapters
- Goes Down Easy (free version): An abbreviated version of the full Goes Down Easy cookbook, available for download, free of charge.
- ELLICSR Kitchen
Attend live cooking demos with free samples, or watch videos online to learn how to prepare healthy meals to address nutritional needs for patients living with cancer - Coping with head and neck cancer: Information and Support resources
- Eating problems and cancer
- Healthy eating and cancer
- The Building Up Diet
- Recipes for people affected by cancer
- How to manage your lack of appetite from Cancer Care Ontario
Find help with rehabilitation for nutritional needs
- Patients who receive chemotherapy and/or radiation treatment at University Health Network have access to a registered dietitian. Ask your team for a referral if one was not automatically made. UHN patients also have access to a dietitian while admitted to the hospital for surgery.
- Patients of Sunnybrook’s Odette Cancer Centre may request to see a dietitian at any follow up appointment with your treatment team.
- TeleHealth Ontario
Free, evidence-based nutrition advice is available by calling 1-866-797-0000. - Use our Find a Program or Therapist link for other options.