Me too was just a medium-sized woman at 5'4" and 116 lbs when treatment started. Eating became very painful when I was in the middle of treatment. The doctor suggested a nose feeding tube when I lost 10 lbs in a week but I was scared of the idea of getting a tube through my nose. If the PEG tube had been an option then, I might have thought of getting one. Yet I am very happy that it wasn't an option because it turned out that I could make through the whole treatment without any feeding tube. The doctor prescribed some medicine that numbed my mouth before I took my meals and it did well to reduce my pain. I managed to eat 3 meals a day ( mostly congee and milk and icecream) and was discharged from the hospital when my weight became stable. I totally lost 16lbs and gained back my lost weight in 6 months' time. So I would think that the use of feeding tube has nothing to do with the size of a person since in Hong Kong most people are of a smaller size as compared with the westerners but only 25% of patients need a feeding tube during their cancer treatment.

Karen.