ABSTRACT
The relationship between nutrition and cancer is not yet fully understood, but researchers do know that well-nourished patients have a better prognosis. In patients with potentially curable or stable disease, nutritional support, when indicated, is an important and often critical part of the overall treatment plan. Before the advent of enteral and parenteral nutrition, the inability to receive nutrients through oral intake inevitably led to wasting and death. Many of the cancer patients actually died because of dehydration and starvation.
