Hello James!

I firmly believe that when it comes to cancer, getting the best medical advice and care available is the smartest thing you can do and only increases your survival rates.

That being said, you are in good hands at OSU, great team there with many brilliant minds. I had the pleasure of meeting Dr. Michael Caligiuri, the CEO of the James Cancer Center last year at the National Cancer Institute, along with Dr. Maura Gillison, who sits on OCF's Science Advisory Board, two extremely passionate and intelligent people who reflect the commitment to excellence at OSU.


As many of the posters above have pointed out nutrition and hydration are key. Before treatment it is recommended that you go out and eat at your favorite restaurants, and your favorite meals. Enjoy every bite and remember exactly how these fares taste, it may be a while before you get to taste them again.

Now I disagree with the majority of the nutritional advice given to patients beginning treatment (as does the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition), as there is such thing as gaining the wrong type of weight, and eating unhealthy foods through treatment. Understand that the current figures are that 20-40% of ALL oncology patients die of malnutrition, which is a figure that tells me that those that "should" be reading the AJCN have missed a few publications (or all of them).

There is a direct link between lean muscle mass percentages and cancer survival (http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/84/3/475.full) , so when starting treatment eat like an athlete would, with the sole purpose of maintaining lean muscle mass, which will wither away during treatment. My favorite excerpt of this write up is:

"Loss of muscle mass is also known to be detrimental to survival from cancer. For example, in patients with lung cancer receiving radiation therapy, the amount of body protein (measured by in vivo neutron-activation analysis) predicted recurrence. In those in whom body protein decreased, recurrence and, ultimately, survival was worse than in patients who were able to maintain or increase muscle mass (14). Although it is possible that muscle loss occurs because of impaired appetite and, thus, reduced protein intake in those more susceptible to recurrence, the relation between muscle mass and recurrence is nonetheless striking."

Eating garbage like refined sugars, saturated fats, and anything not mission specific will not help you survive this ordeal or hold up during treatment, so focus on lean proteins (and LOTS of them) complex carbs, and unsaturated fats, much like the diet of a top level athlete preparing for competition....or a warrior preparing for battle.

Good luck, keep your chin up

Eric