Supportive Care
Nutrition
Good nutrition is essential during pancreatic cancer treatment. Eating well helps you stay strong, tolerate treatment, and maintain a healthy weight.
Nutrition
Why Nutrition Matters
Pancreatic cancer and its treatments can cause significant weight loss and nutritional deficiencies. Staying well-nourished is an active part of your care.
For patients with pancreatic cancer, good nutrition helps prevent weight loss and malnutrition, maintain treatment doses and schedule, and manage side effects from both cancer and treatment. The pancreas plays a central role in digestion, so tumors and surgery can directly affect how the body absorbs nutrients. A registered dietitian can help you build an individualized eating plan.
Nutrition
Managing Weight Loss
Weight loss is common and has multiple causes. Each requires a slightly different approach.
Eat small, frequent meals and snacks every 2–3 hours rather than three large meals. Choose high-calorie, high-protein foods first. Oral nutrition supplements (such as Ensure or Boost) can help fill nutritional gaps. If appetite loss is severe, ask your care team about appetite-stimulating medications.
When the pancreas cannot produce enough digestive enzymes, fat and nutrients pass through without being absorbed. Symptoms include loose, oily, or foul-smelling stools, bloating, and unintentional weight loss. Your doctor may prescribe pancreatic enzyme replacement therapy (PERT) to take with every meal and snack. Smaller, more frequent meals also improve absorption.
Cancer can increase the body's energy needs and drive muscle breakdown even when calorie intake seems adequate. Focus on nutrient-dense foods, stay physically active to preserve muscle mass, and discuss with your team whether appetite-stimulating medications or nutritional support are appropriate.
Nutrition
Pancreatic Enzyme Replacement Therapy (PERT)
PERT replaces the digestive enzymes the pancreas can no longer produce in sufficient quantities, allowing your body to absorb nutrients from food.
Enzyme pills (such as Creon, Zenpep, or Pancreaze) must be taken with the first bite of every meal and snack, not before or after. The dose may need adjustment over time; work with your care team to find the right amount. Signs that your dose may be too low include continued greasy stools, bloating, or ongoing weight loss despite eating.
PERT is commonly needed after a Whipple procedure, distal pancreatectomy, or total pancreatectomy, and also in patients whose tumor is obstructing the pancreatic duct. Do not skip PERT doses; consistent use significantly improves nutritional status and quality of life.
Get Expert Nutritional Support
Our multidisciplinary team includes registered dietitians who specialize in cancer nutrition. Ask about a nutrition referral at your next visit.