The tastebuds’ oro-sensory detection detects the flavor of any food. Neuronal pathways are also triggered by taste, preparing the body for digestion, absorption, and storage of nutrients. Sweet, sour, bitter, salty, umami, and possibly a sixth fat taste are the five taste modes. Appetite, body weight, and psychological well-being may all be affected by dysgeusia, a dysfunction of taste perception.
Changes in taste discernment are particularly significant in illnesses like malignant growth, which is one of the primary drivers of bleakness and mortality all through the world. Because it does not accurately represent the life-threatening events, clinicians typically disregard altered taste perception in cancer patients. Taste changes may be an alarming early sign of tumor cell invasion in cancer patients, according to some evidence.
Indeed, the change in taste is the fourth most common symptom in patients with advanced cancer, following dry mouth, weight loss, and early satiety. However, gastrointestinal abnormalities are the most distressing symptom. A change in taste may occur in 15 to 100 percent of cancer patients, according to some studies.
The inflammatory state is one of the most noticeable characteristics of advanced cancer. Through blood circulation, the inflammatory markers may also exert their influence in the brain and modulate the senses of smell and taste that control feeding behavior. Cancer patients may be able to control changes in taste at both the taste bud and brain levels.
The microbiota are frequently disrupted as a result of cancer treatment. Since changes in the microbiota cause inflammation and changes in taste perception, it stands to reason that cancer patients’ tastes might change as a result of changes in their gut microbiota.
The perception of taste may be altered by chemotherapy. The binding and chelation of zinc and other heavy metals by sulfhydryl groups in their structures, which results in zinc depletion and loss of taste, may occur when cancer treatments cause zinc deficiency.
Damage to taste cells caused by a radiation field is the primary cause of taste changes. The radiation therapy caused damage to the taste buds.
Additionally, chemotherapy and radiation cause TRCs to die and prevent taste progenitor/stem cells from growing. Due to the fact that radiation therapy frequently damages salivary glands, dry mouth (xerostomia) has also been suggested as a factor in taste changes.
Self-care methods for managing taste as part of treatment The patients themselves can evaluate the changes in thresholds for various taste modalities.
As a result, they might alter their feeding strategies or alter their eating habits. Patients with breast cancer, for instance, who were receiving chemotherapy with docetaxel or paclitaxel included a number of strategies, such as changing their eating habits by including new recipes. Food tastefulness can be by adding counterfeit flavours.
According to medical professionals, each patient should have its own unique approach to adapting to changes in taste. Consequently, more than half of patients reported trying one of the following strategies:
- Eating more sauces and fats, eating smaller meals more often, using more condiments, eating blander foods, adding something sweet to meats, sucking on hard candy, eating more boiled foods, and avoiding beef. The majority of patients (74–87%) who tried these strategies found them helpful. However, psychological constraints make it difficult to implement self-care strategies.
- Medications: Chemotherapy patients with cancer may benefit from taking zinc supplements.
- It has been demonstrated that the organic thiophosphate amifostine shields healthy tissues from damage brought on by chemotherapy and radiation.
- On the basis of saliva secretion in cancer patients who had hypo-salivation following radiation therapy, the efficacy of two medications, pilocarpine and bethanechol, which both increase saliva production, was evaluated.
Reference:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5340755/
