Background/Rationale
Taste changes (dysgeusia) are a well known side effect of cancer and its treatments. Up to 70% of patients undergoing systemic cancer therapy experience dysgeusia and in advanced cases this can cause a significant reduction in daily caloric intake.
The purpose of this project was to investigate the rate and impact of taste changes in a regional hospital’s oncology day unit in order to target staff training and develop future projects to improve the information provided to patients
Methods
All patients attending oncology day unit in October 2024 were provided with a taste change survey along with their usual admission documents. Patients completed the survey and returned them to nursing staff to be sent on to the Dietitian.
61 responses were received. Exclusions to the project were not being able to read English and attending for non-oncology treatment.
It was found that 66% (38/61) of patients experienced taste changes.
Of these, 53% (21/38) reported that the amount they eat was affected, 58% (23/38) reported taste change impacted their enjoyment of food and 31% (12/38) reported their taste changes affected neither aspect.
Types of taste change were also assessed, most common was food generally tasting “different” (31%) and ageusia (14%).
Impact on Practice
Survey results were fed back to nursing staff who have included taste changes in their regular symptom checks on day of treatment.
Dietetics embedded taste changes as part of their standard assessment for oncology.
Raised awareness of this symptom's impacts.
Discussion
This project showed that a majority of patients in our service experience taste changes and a significant proportion find it impacts on their nutrition.
It is worthwhile to invest time in addressing this side effect and further projects and interventions are being planned to look into ways to assess and target and individual’s specific taste changes.