when will I be able to eat normally again? – breaking latest news

I had 35 radiotherapy sessions for two squamous cell carcinomas, one in the tongue and one in the esophagus. I’m starting to eat something, but I don’t feel the flavors. Sometimes it feels like I have flour in my mouth, other times I get a strong salty taste. Will I go back to eating normally?

He answers Vittorio Donatoscientific director of the INI Group, Rome (VAI AL FORUM)

If I have understood correctly, the radiotherapy treatments you carried out presented a radical indication, i.e. a curative intent of complete eradication of the tumor on two sites of disease, which are extremely complex in any case. As can be understood, it is about radiotherapy treatments difficult to performcarried out with large, inhomogeneous irradiation fields, with high doses of radiotherapy e in very delicate anatomical districts. In such oncological situations the problem is to eradicate the cancer without significantly affecting the nearest healthy organs. Generally the risk/benefit ratio is always in favor of radiotherapy, especially in tumors of the head and neck anatomical districtwhere the control of the disease is ensured even if the affected anatomy presents a series of critical organs for the quality of life or worse for survival.

In this context, radiotherapy treatment, thanks to modern control, verification and execution techniques, manages to be effective without being devastating for the patient. To answer your question, first of all I hope that the diagnostic tests, usually carried out within the first six months of the end of the treatment and generally with magnetic resonance, are negative for the presence of neoplastic disease. Secondly the possibility of having a loss of taste (ageusia) or dry mouth (xerostomia) occurs after radiotherapy treatment, but is generally temporarywith return to normal after a very variable period, usually after six months but also in much longer periods.

These complications, often inevitable in relation to the staging of the disease, depend a lot on intrinsic personal factors, but also on the radiotherapy schedules used, which in the specific case could only be carried out with high curative doses. It is very important that these disturbances are promptly reported to the radiation oncologist who follows you and has specific expertise in managing your follow-up (control over time). I hope that, in your case, the complications can go away as soon as possible and that the clinical-instrumental diagnostic checks demonstrate the absence of a tumor now and in the future.