Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2023 Apr;36(2):566-579.
doi: 10.1111/jhn.13001. Epub 2022 Apr 12.

Do people change their eating habits after a diagnosis of cancer? A systematic review

Amal Aldossari  1 , Jana Sremanakova  1 , Anne Marie Sowerbutts  1 , Debra Jones  1 , Mark Hann  2 , Sorrel T Burden  1   3
Affiliations

Do people change their eating habits after a diagnosis of cancer? A systematic review

Amal Aldossari et al. J Hum Nutr Diet. 2023 Apr.

Abstract

Background: People who live with and beyond cancer are considered to be motivated to change their diet. However, there is a lack of reviews conducted on what specific dietary changes people make and further evaluation may inform future interventional studies. Hence, we aim to summarise the evidence on dietary changes in observational studies before and after a cancer diagnosis.

Methods: This systematic review followed the guidelines of Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis. Electronic searches were conducted in four databases to identify cohort and cross-sectional studies on dietary changes before and after a cancer diagnosis, excluding studies that evaluated an intervention. Quality assessment was undertaken, and meta-analyses were conducted where suitable.

Results: We identified 14 studies with 16,443 participants diagnosed with cancer, with age range 18-75 years. Dietary change was assessed <1-5 years before diagnosis and up to 12 years post-diagnosis. Meta-analyses showed that the standard mean difference (SMD) for energy (SMD-0.32, 95% confidence interval = -0.46 to -0.17) and carbohydrate consumption (SMD 0.20, 95% confidence interval = -0.27 to -0.14). Studies showed inconsistent findings for fat, protein and fibre, most food groups, and supplement intake. A small decrease in red and processed meat consumption was consistently reported.

Conclusions: All studies reported some positive changes in dietary intake and supplement consumption after receiving a cancer diagnosis without any intervention. However, differences for food groups and nutrients were mainly small and not necessarily clinically meaningful. Evidence demonstrates that a cancer diagnosis alone is insufficient to motivate people to change their dietary intake, indicating that most people would benefit from a dietary intervention to facilitate change.

Keywords: Tables; cancer; diet; food groups; living with and beyond; supplements; survivorship.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

REFERENCES

    1. Sung H, Ferlay J, Siegel RL, Laversanne M, Soerjomataram I, Jemal A, et al. Global cancer statistics 2020: GLOBOCAN estimates of incidence and mortality worldwide for 36 cancers in 185 countries. CA Cancer J Clin. 2021;71:209-49.
    1. Miller KD, Nogueira L, Mariotto AB, Rowland JH, Yabroff KR, Alfano CM, et al. Cancer treatment and survivorship statistics, 2019. CA Cancer J Clin. 2019;69:363-85.
    1. Elliott J, Fallows A, Staetsky L, Smith PW, Foster CL, Maher EJ, et al. The health and well-being of cancer survivors in the UK: findings from a population-based survey. Br J Cancer. 2011;105(Suppl 1):S11-20.
    1. Schwedhelm C, Boeing H, Hoffmann G, Aleksandrova K, Schwingshackl L. Effect of diet on mortality and cancer recurrence among cancer survivors: a systematic review and meta-analysis of cohort studies. Nutr Rev. 2016;74:737-48.
    1. Vergnaud AC, Romaguera D, Peeters PH, van Gils CH, Chan DS, Romieu I, et al. Adherence to the World Cancer Research Fund/American Institute for Cancer Research guidelines and risk of death in Europe: results from the European Prospective Investigation into Nutrition and Cancer cohort study1,4. Am J Clin Nutr. 2013;97:1107-20.

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources