Diet

November 18, 2003

Hi,

The kind of foods that I find I can eat are in the grocers freezer section.

I eat alot of Healthy choice meals. They are low fat and include your meat,

vegetable and dessert. I have a large family and find it hard to cook for

everyone the foods that I am suppose to eat. I usually cook them something or

my

husband will ( we have 4 kids ages 16,13,13 and 9). So when we cook we cook

alot. I'm not saying that this will work for you but this is what works for

me. I have also found that I do better if I drink diet sodas. I hope this

helps.

Patty

Louisville, kY

November 29, 2005

Hi. My brother has colon cancer with mets in the liver. He is taking

erbitux and campazar, and sometimes Avastin. By the time they

diagnosed he was already stage four. Amazingly with the Avastin and

the Erbitux he has kept going for almost 2 years. He also has a pain

pump with morphine which compounds his digestive problems. However he

is nervous about eating anything healthy, anything with anti-oxidents,

lest they interfere with his chemo regime. This means he eats almost

no fruits and vegetables. I think this could cause problems for him.

Does anyone have suggestions for his diet?

Thank you for any information!

November 29, 2005

I

You did not leave a name but I want to respond to your question about your

brother's diet. First of all, there are many on this board who were Stage 4

with liver mets at the time of diagnosis--I am one of those people. This is

common because unless there is a large obstruction, you are virtually without

symptoms until the later stages. In my case, the only clue was extreme

anemia (with elevated liver enzymes on my blood test) and that told them I had

cancer with a likelihood of mets to the liver. I had surgery, however, and

removed on third of my liver as well as resectioned the colon and removed other

organs.

I am now on chemo but mine consists of FOLFOX plus Avastin. I understood

this was the first line therapy for my stage of colon cancer. Did they try

this with your brother and he couldn't continue for some reason? Why is he on

Avastin only occasionally?

As for diet, he is probably right not to take any vitamin supplements

containing high doses of antioxidants because many believe it will counteract

the

oxidizing effects of the chemo. However, I was told to eat healthy fruits and

vegetables. A cancer nutritionist listed them in order of benefit (I don't

have my list here now) and basically said a vegetarian diet with (in my case)

fish such as salmon is best. She encourages me to eat legumes, salads,

broccoli, brussel sprouts, etc., plus papaya, melons, apples and other fruits.

I

think he should speak with a cancer nutritionist and get on a more healthy

diet. He just shouldn't supplement with antioxidants. BTW: I take calcium,

a regular multi-vitamin (not mega doses), and fish oil capsules as well as

PSK, a mushroom extract we have discussed on this board in recent weeks.

Good luck.

n a message dated 11/29/2005 9:22:51 A.M. Pacific Standard Time,

merrylizard@... writes: