What are the dietary precautions after treatment of nasopharyngeal carcinoma

What are the dietary precautions after nasopharyngeal carcinoma treatment?

1. Nasal congestion is a common early manifestation of nasopharyngeal carcinoma. It mainly manifests as unilateral nasal congestion. When the nasopharyngeal tumor grows, bilateral nasal congestion may occur. Runny nose and blood are also early symptoms of nasopharyngeal carcinoma, manifested as blood in the runny nose, or bloody runny nose sucked out of the mouth. At the same time, nasopharyngeal carcinoma directly invades or lymph nodes metastasize to the posterior part of the styloid process or the hypoglossal nerve canal, invading the hypoglossal nerve, causing the tongue to stretch to the affected side, accompanied by atrophy of the tongue muscle on the affected side.

2. The diet of nasopharyngeal cancer patients should be balanced. Eat more vegetables and fruits, eat less or no salted fish, pickles, smoked meat, bacon and other foods containing nitrosamines. Avoid spicy and irritating foods and excessive drinking. Especially during the radiotherapy and chemotherapy of nasopharyngeal cancer, patients often have dry mouth and throat, loss of appetite, nausea and vomiting. Traditional Chinese medicine believes that this is due to deficiency of qi and yin, strong heat and toxicity, and should avoid spicy and toxic stimulation. Eat a light diet, pay attention to exercise, and choose easily digestible, nutritious and delicious food.

3. During radiotherapy, patients are encouraged to drink plenty of water, light beverages, juice, milk, etc. The staple food should be semi-liquid or soft food, and the side dishes should be fresh vegetables and fruits, especially carrots, water chestnuts, white radishes, tomatoes, lotus roots, white pears, citrus, lemons, hawthorns and other fruits. The diet should be light and sweet, and do not drink too cold to avoid hurting the stomach. Plums, monk fruit, olives, green fruits, etc. can stimulate saliva secretion and relieve dryness symptoms.