Head and neck cancer and treatment can make eating and drinking difficult. For example:

  • Surgery may cause changes to your mouth, throat or teeth, making it hard to chew or swallow certain foods
  • Radiotherapy can make your mouth dry with reduced saliva
  • Radiotherapy may change the taste of food and reduce your enjoyment of food
  • Treatment can sometimes cause pain and difficulty swallowing, making it hard to eat.

Your dietician will help you plan your diet so you get the energy and nutrition you need.  The dietitian may give you some tips to help make eating easier and help you stay well hydrated.  If you are having difficulty swallowing, the speech and language therapist can assess your swallow and provide recommendations on the safest foods to eat, plus exercises to try to improve or maintain your swallow.  Most people who have trouble eating and drinking after treatment find it gets better over time, but you may find these problems last for longer than you expected. Some people need a feeding tube to make sure you are getting enough nourishment and energy.  If this is the case for you, your doctor, dietitian and nurse will talk with you and tell you what this involves and discuss what will be required to reach your nutritional needs.

A range of resources have been developed for patients, family and friends that cover some of the most common questions and problems around eating and drinking after treatment for head and neck cancer.

Nutrition

An important goal after treatment is to maintain your weight, get the energy, protein and nourishment your body needs. Good nutrition helps the body heal, reduces the risk of infection and maintains muscle. Here are some resources to help with common eating problems and for you to stay interested in eating and drinking when foods don’t taste the same and eating is different:

Macmillan Cancer Support Eating problems and cancer 

The Making Sense campaign booklet, designed by people with head and neck cancer, includes advice on how to maintain your nutrition and some useful recipes.

Social Eating

After treatment some people have difficulties eating and drinking in front of other people. You may find eating and drinking in front of others uncomfortable and this can make you feel emotional. For some, the shared enjoyment of food is an important part of your life and it can be challenging following treatment to regain confidence to eat with others.

This self-management guide aims to provide information and activities that can support you to regain skills and confidence when eating with others. You can also watch a video from Dr. Mark Dornan telling us more about the resource and how it was produced with help from patients, family members and professionals (see link below).

https://us06web.zoom.us/rec/share/loB8_3a_JpEBfXqFCsHDjPPHU6LSslfABF4_pWj0ZQn9K2i_pAkv-1bZYno5cyjj.GFFPVoOjhdz4XfeJ 

Recipes

Following cancer treatment, you may find your relationship with food has changed and there may be a period of ‘trial and error’ with certain foods.  It is common for your food preferences to change and you may enjoy different flavours, types and textures of foods after treatment. Trialling different foods may be an exciting experience or a frustrating one. For some, it can take a lot of effort and patience to overcome these difficulties however, it is important to keep experimenting.

Practical Meal Planning provides recipe ideas from head and neck cancer survivors. The publication has been produced in collaboration with The Swallows, a national Head and Neck cancer support group https://www.theswallows.org.uk

Other resource that patients and family members have found helpful include:

Eating Well with Swallowing Difficulties in Cancer

Cooking with Charis – Charis Cancer Care Healthy Eating Cook Book 

There is also a video to give you some helpful tips and hints on how to make food more interesting and appealing:

https://us06web.zoom.us/rec/share/loB8_3a_JpEBfXqFCsHDjPPHU6LSslfABF4_pWj0ZQn9K2i_pAkv-1bZYno5cyjj.GFFPVoOjhdz4XfeJ