CancerCompass message board discussion started by Memah on 7/25/2007 http://www.cancercompass.com/message-board/message/all,14705,0.htm Sun, 23 Nov 2008 00:00:00 GMT Sun, 23 Nov 2008 00:00:00 GMT http://backend.userland.com/rss RSS.NET: http://www.rssdotnet.com/ I am so glad to have discovered Cancer Compass.  I have found information, opinions, help and support here.  Today I come with questions about weight loss during treatment.  My father has stage IV tongue cancer.  He is 87, and he starts radiation and chemo on Monday.  He weighs 141 pounds right now (at 6' tall), and has not been eating very well.  He has a PEG tube, which he will be fed through during treatment.  I know that he can survive on tube feedings.  My question, though, is what if he should lose a significant amount of weight?  I have read here that people have lost from 30-85 pounds.  He has not been physically active in his life.  He's a writer.  Often these days he doesn't even get dressed, but stays in his robe all day, sleeping on and off, and often uses his cane.  Good days, bad days.  What I am concerned about is, even though he can be maintained on tube feedings, what could happen if he should lose, say 40 pounds.  If that should happen he would then weigh 100.  Can a man of his height, although being nourished, survive at that weight (or less)?  Will he be in medical crisis?  Will organs shut down?  Will he be all right?These are questions that swirl around in my mind without answer.  He goes from one illness to another, frightening as the pneumonia or coughing blood or racing heart rate are, and always comes through.  We joke in our family that he has had "another miraculous recovery."  I don't know whether these are strokes of luck, a strong will, or what.  Can anyone speak to the weight loss issue?  I would be interested in hearing from people who have gone through treatment on a feeding tube but have lost considerable weight.  How did it affect you?  How did you handle it?    Anyone else, please feel free to write, also. Thank you so very much.Maggie Memah Wed, 25 Jul 2007 00:00:00 GMT