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Bringing Together Resources In Health Care, Nutrition, & Culinary Arts

Date:
November 20, 2017

As a physician, I found on a frequent basis that I was seeing patients undergoing chemotherapy and radiation therapy who were having great difficulty eating – staying nourished and hydrated.

These patients were coming to me because nutritional advice was not a focus of their oncologists. In searching for information themselves, they frequently encountered unreliable or untrustworthy information.

Concern for my patients and the realization that this story was not unique to my practice led to the formation of the Cancer Nutrition Consortium (CNC). Our mission is to bring together resources in health care, nutrition and culinary arts to raise awareness about patient nutritional needs with the result of bettering the quality of life for those undergoing cancer treatment. We began by assembling a team of experts from medical institutions including Dana Farber, Brigham and Women’s, Johns Hopkins, Duke University, Cedars Sinai, Mayo Clinic, Yale University, University of Chicago, NYU Langone Perlmutter, and Roswell Park.

With them, we created a clinical research study to learn how cancer treatment affects a patient’s food intake and preferences so as to guide the development of dietary interventions. The study explored nutritional needs and preferences for taste and smell, which can be problematic for patients undergoing chemotherapy and radiation. We took the results of our initial study and developed hundreds of delicious recipes to meet patients’ nutritional needs. Cancer patients, family members and caregivers can access these recipes on the consortium’s website (CancerNutrition.org) – and prepare meals at home for themselves and their loved ones.

We look forward to any feedback you may have.

Bruce Moskowitz, M.D.
Founder