People with cancer can become malnourished for many reasons:
This includes reduced food intake, malabsorption, metabolic disturbances and abnormal inflammatory responses.1 Some of these can be to do with the cancer itself, while others are related to medication, treatment and / or side effects.
Between 30 to 90% of people with cancer become malnourished during the course of their illness, depending on the type, location, stage of the tumour and treatment2.