Role of Nutrition Therapy in Pediatric Oncology: An Overview

Abstract

Pediatric cancer is of various forms is the primary cause of death in children. Children undergoing cancer treatment are particularly vulnerable to malnutrition due to the challenge of maintaining adequate nutrient intake necessary for growth and development. Since malnutrition can happen at any point throughout a patient’s course of treatment, detailed dietary recommendations and proactive management techniques are required. In pediatric oncology, it is essential to manage nutrition well in order to avoid malnutrition and its negative consequences, which can impair quality of life and the effectiveness of therapy. Different forms of malnutrition make the situation more difficult and the treatment procedure more difficult. Therefore, standardized nutritional screening and evaluation should be performed often during therapy and follow-up. Rigorous dietary modifications and intake pattern inclusion in pediatric oncology therapy is critical to boosting recuperation, promoting treatment tolerance, and guaranteeing improved long-term health results. Like other supportive care procedures, nutritional strategies are important and should be used with the same amount of discipline. Optimizing nutritional status before, during, and after treatment can improve quality of life and long-term survival for patients and survivors of pediatric cancer.

Keywords: Assessment and screening tools, Nutrition, Pediatric oncology.

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