Keeping healthy after pancreatic cancer 

Pancreatic Cancer Action
Patient Information Booklets

Diet and Nutrition for Patients

This booklet contains information about how pancreatic cancer can affect your diet and nutrition. Provides information on managing dietary symptoms such as malabsorption, enzyme replacement, poor appetite, weight loss and managing diarrhoea. Contains a section about dietary supplements and information about diabetes and diet.

Once you have finished treatment, you may want to prioritise getting back to feeling as healthy as possible and staying that way. Here is some advice:

We are currently reviewing this page. If you have any further questions please contact healthinfo@panact.org 

Take it slow

You may wish to return to your previous activities or begin new ones right away, but it is important that you give yourself time to recover. 

Start slowly, perhaps a short walk every day and gradually build up. Setting yourself short- and medium-term goals can help to track your progress towards a long-term goal and make sure that you don’t do too much too soon.  

Eat healthily

Try to eat healthily, making sure you have a lot of fruits and vegetables as well as food designed to help you gain or maintain your weight. Keeping a healthy weight is important for your recovery and beyond. If you smoke, consider giving up or cutting down as smoking is one of the biggest preventable causes of cancer. Avoiding alcohol or cutting down is another important way of looking after your health after cancer.  

Mental health

Remember your mental health is just as important as physical health. Coping with stress is another way of staying healthy. Consider ways to relax such as going for a walk, taking a relaxing bath or listening to music. Yoga, meditation and mindfulness help some people to relax or another form of light exercise. Talk to someone about how you feel and get support if you need it.  

Long term conditions

If you have any other long-term conditions, then managing these alongside your recovery will help you to feel well. If you have any symptoms you are concerned about or a deterioration in your condition, don’t hesitate to make an appointment with your GP.

Your care plan should contain information on symptoms and recurrence that will be useful to know, if not, ask your GP.  

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