High Fat Diet

[Alpine Dreaming]

I'm caring for a family member who has metastatic pancreatic cancer and is due to start chemo shortly.  He is really struggling to eat - lack of appetite and when he does eat it gives him awful stomach pain which can keep him awake at night.
He's been told by a nurse that he should have a high protein, high fat diet and I wondered if this sounds correct.  I think high protein sounds right but I wondered about high fat as that might be difficult for his pancreas to manage?  I'm not keen on questioning the nurse's advice as I'm not qualified but he is feeling very unwell and spends most of his time in bed with very little energy, so I'm just trying to see what might help.

Also he has been told he doesn't need to try Creon (or similar) because his cancer isn't in the head of the pancreas where enzymes are produced and therefore he should be able to digest food normally without the help of Creon.  I wondered if this was correct or if others have still found it helpful regardless of where the tumour is?
He hasn't received his appointment with a dietician yet but from reading up I wonder if he should perhaps try several small meals rather than the 3 'normal' meals.
Any advice very gratefully received, thank you.

 

[Support Team]

Hi Alphine Dreaming,

 

I hope you don't mind me responding to your post.  I'm sure some other people will reply soon too.  I'm sorry to hear your Family member has advanced pancreatic cancer, I'm sure this must be a really difficult time for you.  From what you are describing it definitely sounds as if pancreatic enzymes (most common brand is Creon) are needed.  People tend to experience worse symptoms when eating higher fat foods.  It sounds good advice that your Family member has been given.  Many people reduce or cut out fats due to symptoms but this is not the right thing to do, it is better to take more digestive enzymes with foods higher in fat.

 

Would you consider giving the Support Line Freephone number a call on 0808 801 0707 or you can email them at nurse@pancreaticcancer.org.uk and the Nurses there can talk through things in much more detail?

 

With best wishes,

 

Support Team

 

Pancreatic Cancer Support Team

[Alpine Dreaming]

Thank you. Thats really helpful to know and I will also get in touch with the nurses.

Thank you.

[Wifey55]

Hi, my husband has advanced pancreatic cancer in the tail and was diagnosed on 2nd December. We were told to ask our gp for Creon that same day even though we didn’t have an appointment with the consultant until 20th December. Initially we were told to take 2 or 3 with a snack and 3 or 4 with a main meal. I have done so much research on this as well as speaking with the dietician. We have been increasing them steadily to reduce the pain and improve the bowel movements to be more normal. It really works. He now takes about 25 (25000 dose) each day. I track every thing he eats on an app and issue number of creons based on g of fat. We started on 2500 lipase per g of fat and now he has 4000 lipase per g of fat. As I said his cancer is in the tail and I don’t think he would be pain free and as well as he is if he wasn’t taking copious amounts of Creon. It is a pain for him taking so many tablets but the benefits outweigh that.