Hi all, just found this forum and have to say what a godsend to know such a supportive and knowledgable place exists my head has been spinning last few weeks. My mum is 58 and was diagnosed with IBS but after being rushed to hospital early July they found a cancerous adenocarcinoma 2-3 inches in size growing in an unusual place on the outside of her right colon pushing in creating a partial blockage. She had an emergency stoma fitted when she deteriorated due to her colon malfunctioning. We had her first meeting with her onc today 5 weeks after the OP (NHS UK). The mass was left in place during the surgery as the emergency surgeon didnt feel it was appropriate to cut it out at the time
She has mets described as spots by the surgeon locally spread throughout her abdomen on her colon and her last remaining ovary, nothing found on her liver and lung fluid was tested and is clean. The onc and my mum agreed to a plan of 3 months of 5fu, irinotecan and due to the genetic test of the tumour coming up OK she will be on cetuximab too, once the 3 months are up she will have a scan to see how it is progressing.
My mum has been following the eattobeatcancer.org anti-angiogenic diet, lots of matcha green tea, berry smoothies, green cruciferous veg and nuts and fish and herbs when I raised this with the onc and asked her what my mother should / could eat that wont interfere with the chemo all she said was no grapefruit and pomegranate which isnt much help and eat whatever. Also have been giving her curcumin with piperine, supplements of mushroom extract (turkey tail, maitake, cordyceps), astralagus and ashwagandha to boost her immune system, grape seed extract and mediterranean herbs after reading up on the various clinical trials on the pubmed databases
My question is when she is having her folfiri and cetuximab is there anything other than grapefruit she should not eat that will interfere with the chemo? Is it safe to still eat her berry smoothies and drink her matcha even though they are antioxidants? Should we refrain from feeding her these a few days before her chemo and a few days after only or does the chemo continue to work the whole 2 weeks? Are the supplements i am giving her safe with chemo or should I discontinue all or some? Are there any supplements / foods you guys recommend I have missed to either help with the cancer or help with the chemo side effects? I have seen IP6 and others mentioned on the forum after browsing it the last hour ...
Sorry for the barrage of questions but here in the UK the oncs seem to have very little interest in the diet / supplement aspect and integrated oncology is not really a thing here as we cannot go shopping for an oncologist as you can in other healthcare systems. I was not impressed by the responses to my questions today I wanted a simple list of foods / supplements to avoid and ones which would be safe to consider
Any advice would be super appreciated as to what we can do, she is very scared since hearing her diagnosis and we are pretty shook up too. We are totally out of our depths and unsure which way to go.
Thanks to anyone who reads this