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Letter
Fasting during cancer chemotherapy: single centre study
  1. Wala Ben Kridis,
  2. Emna Hadj Taieb,
  3. Raafat Ben Lassoued and
  4. Afef Khanfir
  1. Habib Bourguiba Hospital, University of Sfax, Sfax, Tunisia
  1. Correspondence to Dr Wala Ben Kridis; walabenkridis{at}yahoo.fr

https://doi.org/10.1136/spcare-2025-005369

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    Introduction

    Fasting during the holy month of Ramadan is a religious ritual practised by the majority of Muslims around the globe. Patients with cancer under chemotherapy were advised to avoid fasting during chemotherapy. However, we have noticed that some patients with cancer are fasting for a spiritual need. According to the latest study findings, fasting may be crucial in the treatment of cancer by creating circumstances that restrict the development, survival and adaptability of cancer cells. Fasting may reduce side effects and improve the efficacy of cancer treatments.1

    An outstanding concern regarding the use of intermittent fasting among patients with cancer is that fasting often results in caloric restriction, which can put patients already prone to malnutrition, cachexia or sarcopenia at risk.2 Given these conflicting data, we decided to conduct this study. We aimed to determine the percentage of patients with cancer who did fasting and to assess its tolerance.

    Methods

    This was a cross-sectional study including patients with cancer treated with chemotherapy at the department of medical oncology in Habib Bourguiba University Hospital. We questioned patients with cancer receiving chemotherapy during April 2024. We determined the percentage of patients …

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    Footnotes

    • Contributors WBK contributed to the idea, conception and analysis. EHT and RBL contributed to the data collection. AK contributed to the supervision and revision. All the authors reviewed the manuscript. The guarantor is WBK.

    • Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; internally peer reviewed.