Melanoma diet and vitamins

Hi Kelly,

I did a lot of research into what the best diet is for my mum - she's currently being treated with immunotherapy for stage 4 melanoma. A lot of studies seem to agree that a Mediterranean diet very high in fibre can increase the effectiveness of immunotherapy, plus can potentially slow tumour growth (that was what was seen in mice anyway - not sure how true it is for humans). The studies I read showed that it's good to avoid processed sugars and red meat.

Please, take all of that with a big grain of salt. I'm not a medical professional, but I did look into this on my mum's behalf, so I hope that helps a little.

Best wishes,

Pip x

Hi KellyLM 

I didn't change my diet after being diagnosed with melanoma as I felt I ate a reasonably balanced diet already. I was advised to have my GP check my Vitamin D level, to see if I needed to take Vitamin D supplements, but my levels were okay. If you have a look at this leaflet you'll see more about Vitamin D.

Before you change your diet you might be interested in this information from Macmillan on food myths and cancer. They also have this information on making changes to your diet which you might find helpful.

Hi Latchbrook & Pip93

Thank you for posting.

i have found comments on diet useful and I guess a Mediterranean way of eating tasty and appealing. Perhaps a visit to that area would make it taste even better!

More seriously though I have always eaten quite a mixed diet and prefer savoury foods to cakes And sweet courses. I am being careful to include fish 
more regularly. I have always used tinned sardines as a quick & easy meal. I enjoy red meat but don’t eat it often and I’m ok with vegetarian most of the time. Latchbrook thank you for the links. I have steered away from reading too much but I found the articles helpful. 
i hope you are doing well. Pip - I wondered about your mother’s age and why immunology was offered to her. 
please say hi to her. I am also Stage 4 in diagnosis. I will read her profile on here. I’m just getting my head around using the community.

Best wishes

Hi Kelly,

That was what my mum said about the Mediterranean diet - it's so tasty anyway. It sounds like you already have a great diet. My mum's take on it was not to deny herself anything she wanted to eat, just have it in moderation and focus more on the good things in her diet than the bad things. It certainly seems to be working well for her and making her feel better - even if just in her mind. It's a way of taking control, I guess.

She's 57, was stage 3b when first diagnosed last February. Then she had one course of immunotherapy for a year, unfortunately had a small recurrence this May - she was still 3b at that point and just had surgery to get rid of the cancerous lymph node. Last month we got the bad news that the melanoma had returned and spread all over this time. Her treatment has been amazing, fortunately - she's had the gamma knife on three tumours in her brain which was totally painless and has a 90% success rate. Now she's having Ipi/Nivo and is about to have her second cycle of that.

Hope that helps!

Best wishes,

Pip x

Thanks Latchbrook for posting the food myths and cancer link. I hadn't read that page before and it was really interesting.

Pip x

Thank you Latchbrook, that is very helpful