Smell and Taste Dysfunction in Children with Cancer

Children with cancer experience chemosensory changes (i.e., changes in their sense of taste and smell) during the course of treatment. Irradiation of head and neck, and administration of chemotherapeutic agents induce these changes. This is an often overlooked but still important treatment symptom as it contributes to poor food intake which in turn may cause malnutrition and affect prognosis. The central aim of this project is to elucidate causes and consequences of chemosensory changes in childhood cancer patients. The reasons for examining children with cancer (as opposed to adults) are that (1) there is very little known of the impact cancer treatment has on children’s sense of taste and smell and how this affects food intake and food preferences directly and on the longer term; (2) dietary habits and flavour preferences are still developing in children and thus the impact of therapy induced dysfunctional taste and smell is, presumably, much larger in childhood cancer patients.

Smell function, taste function, and papillae density will decrease in childhood cancer patients during chemotherapy compared to: 1) The period before chemotherapy, 2) Controls (siblings).

Patients: measurements (smell, taste, papillae density) will take place during clinical admission to the hospital, at least once in every patient.
- Measurement 1: before a cycle of chemotherapy (day 1), in order to explore whether measurements are feasible.
- Measurement 2: at the end of the cycle of chemotherapy, only if the first measurement can be considered as feasible.

Controls: one measurement.