Welcome, and congratulations on a clear scan! Weight loss, weight gain, can be problamatic and have multiple factors in cancer patients, and other illnesses, which I addressed on another thread pasted below. I don't know all your particulars, nor am I a medical professional, so seeing them is best, and may include different doctors and therapists, such as pain management, speech and swallow threapist, counselor, nutrionist, dentist, endocrinologist, hematologist. Increaasing calories, sometimes is not enough, and may not be in lean body mass, and other meds such as anaoboilic steroids, corticosteroids, appetitie stimulants, vitamins, melatinin, omega 3 fatty acids, and other nutrional intervention, exercise, is needed, to name a few.
"I have looked into this area, probably more than most, having suffered from cachexia or wasting, losing 110 pounds in one month, 50 percent of my body weight, having weighed 100kg at the start of treament, which nearly killed me, and has taken me three years to gain 40 lbs back. It's not the same as normal starvation, and takes a long road to recover, and usually not just by increasing calories, medications, which may increase body weight, but not lean body mass.
Cachexia, wasting, anorexia is very complex, and multi-factor. It is one of the worst effects of cancer, and accounts up to one third of cancer related deaths. There are many studies with this effect in cancer patients, and other illnesses. The complications associated with this, effects physiological and biochemical balance and influences the effects of cancer treatment, resulting in decreased survival time, QOL, and overlaps chronic infection, surgery, tumor, metabolsim, thyroid, hormones, glucose, energy, nasusea, acquired taste aversions, depression.
Early and appropriate nutrional interventions hold promise of improving the ability to undergo and tolerate treatments, including radiation, chemo, and surgery, and other forms. In contrast to normal starvation, cachexia is the advanced state of wasting marked by excess loss of skeletal muscle, muscle mass relative to body weight. Normal starvation is adaptive, and weight loss occurring gradually, beacuse of decreased caloric intake, with relative maintenance of lean body mass at the expense of body fat as an energy source. Bacause of metabolic and nutrional effects accompying advanced cancer, these adaptions are inhibited or impaired leading to advanced malnutrition, and life threatening cachexia. Certain forms of cancer are marked with weight loss at time of diagnosis, and Head and Neck cancer is one, mine was 25lb at diagnosis, so I really lost total 135lbs. Overall, malnutrition varies from 30 to 87% of patients, 5 percent of unintentional weight loss is considered late effects of cachexia. Anorxia, effecting 14-40% of patients, at time of daignosis, has a role in weight loss, but cannot explain all the loss."
Good luck.
