Dietetics and nutrition in oncology

Contact :

Paris : 01 44 32 44 97 

Saint-Cloud : 01 47 11 15 24

LA DIÉTÉTIQUE ET LA NUTRITION EN ONCOLOGIE

A l’Institut Curie, la nutrition est considérée comme un véritable soin dans la prise en charge globale de la maladie. Le maintien d’un bon statut nutritionnel est crucial pour le bien-être des patients atteints de cancer. Après les traitements le maintien d’habitudes alimentaires adaptées reste important.

Importance of nutrition in cancer management

Several factors may alter the nutritional status of cancer sufferers.

  • The disease itself: Some 30% to 50% of cancer patients lose weight due to lost appetite, fatigue, metabolic disorders, or eating difficulties.
  • Stress related to the disease.
  • Digestive disorders related to treatments.

For people suffering from cancer, nutrition is an important pillar of their treatment plan. Indeed, malnutrition weakens the body and makes treatments less effective.

The dedicated teams of Institut Curie advise and accompany patients throughout their care journey to ensure their good nutritional status, help them fight against weight loss or weight gain, and also help them adapt their diet depending on the side effects of treatments and ensure nutritional supplementation.

Learn more about chemotherapy and nutritional advice 

The Nutrition Unit of Institut Curie

Our missions

On our sites in Paris and Saint-Cloud, dietician nutritionists work hard on preventing, correcting, and improving any nutritional disorders of each patient during their course of care. The team advises patients during hospitalization or when consulting them about prescriptions of their oncologists in cases of decreased appetite, difficulty swallowing, digestive disorders and/or weight loss, and they always respect the national recommendations for clinical nutrition.

Overall, the missions of the Nutrition Unit of Institut Curie are:

  • Promotion of national and international recommendations for prevention during and after cancer
  • Advise patients from a nutritional point of view based on their clinical situations - side effects of treatments, taste disorders, swallowing discomfort, transit disorders, etc.
  • Ensure prevention and detection of malnutrition.
  • Treat malnutrition - high-calorie and high-protein enriched diet, oral nutritional supplementation, and personalized dietary advice
  • Establish and monitor artificial nutrition - enteral nutrition with nasogastric or gastrostomy access, and parenteral nutrition via Peripheral Venous Route.

A referring dietician is always on staff in all adult and pediatric inpatient departments of Institut Curie, and their job is to advise our patients and help them adapt their diet to their needs.

Institut Curie's nutrition web conferences

For all patients treated at Institut Curie, “Nutrition and Cancer” web video conferences (in french) are offered every month to help raise awareness and provide as much support to the patients as possible.

  • Nutrition during and after cancer: monthly 90-minute web conferences on Teams Raising awareness and providing dietary advice during and after cancer. Prevention of weight loss or weight gain / Focus on localized breast cancer / Providing information on fasting and restrictive diets. Information: utep@curie.fr
  • Excess weight, obesity, and cancer: quarterly 90-minute web conferences on Teams. Do excess weight and obesity increase the risk of cancer? And what are the mechanisms involved? What are the factors that contribute to weight gain? What measures can be implemented to limit the risk of cancer linked to excess weight/obesity? 

    Information: sc.maison-despatients@curie.fr

 

To help patients learn about and understand food balance, the Transversal Therapeutic Education Unit (UTEP) offers collective nutritional workshops for patients who wish to deepen their knowledge about food balance and find the best way to navigate their beliefs about nutrition and cancer.

Information : utep@curie.fr – 01 56 24 48 97 

Please note: The conferences and workshops are reserved for patients treated at Institut Curie

 

The expertise of Institut Curie beyond the walls

Institut Curie, in collaboration with other cancer centers, provides training for independent dieticians who are members of the ONCODIETS network. Accessible to all cancer patients requiring nutritional support, whether during or after treatment, you will find the contact details of dietitians on the SFNCM website (www.sfncm.org) or by typing “ONCODIETS” in the search engine.

Find out more