World Cancer Day is not only a global awareness moment; it is also deeply personal. For many people, cancer is not an abstract statistic. It is a phone call you never expected. It is waiting rooms, treatment schedules, and the emotional rollercoaster that comes with living between scans, what many patients now call “scanxiety.” It is the stretch of time between tests where life continues on the surface, but uncertainty sits quietly in the background. If you are living with cancer, or supporting someone who is, it is completely normal to want something you can do, something that helps you feel a little more in control alongside the medical care you need.
This is where lifestyle medicine is starting to play an important and compassionate role. Not as a replacement for oncology treatment, but as a way to support the body and mind before, during, and after treatment. More and more research is showing that daily lifestyle factors influence inflammation, immune function, blood sugar regulation, muscle strength, fatigue, sleep quality, and emotional well-being. These are not small details. They directly influence how people experience cancer treatment and recovery.
Clinical nutrition research in oncology now strongly supports early and ongoing nutrition care because nutritional status can influence treatment tolerance, complications, and overall quality of life. Malnutrition and muscle loss are common in cancer, and both are linked to poorer outcomes, which is why early screening and personalised nutrition support are increasingly considered part of good cancer care, not an optional extra.
A particularly important contribution to this space comes from a 2025 systematic review and meta-analysis published in Frontiers in Nutrition, which examined ketogenic diets in people living with cancer. The findings are not about miracle cures or replacing medical treatment. Instead, they highlight something both realistic and meaningful: metabolic and nutritional strategies may support patient-centred outcomes that matter in real life.
Compared with non-ketogenic diets, the analysis reported improvements in body composition, including reductions in fat mass and visceral fat. It also showed improvements in metabolic markers such as insulin and blood glucose levels. Beyond laboratory results, participants experienced improvements in fatigue, sleep quality, and emotional and social functioning. The analysis also suggested that longer interventions were associated with greater reductions in inflammatory markers such as C-reactive protein. These are important findings because cancer is not only about tumour biology. It is also about how strong the body is during treatment, how well someone tolerates therapy, and how they feel day to day.
There is also growing interest in the role of metabolic health in cancer risk and outcomes. Research continues to show links between insulin resistance, chronic inflammation, and cancer risk and progression across several cancer types. This does not mean lifestyle always causes cancer, and it certainly does not mean lifestyle guarantees prevention or cure. What it does mean is that there are biological pathways we can support, and lifestyle medicine offers practical ways to do that in a supportive and personalised way.
Nutrition during cancer care must always be individualised. Treatments can affect appetite, taste, digestion, and energy needs. Some patients need higher calorie intake to prevent weight loss, while others may benefit from metabolic approaches such as lower carbohydrate or ketogenic strategies under clinical supervision. The key message is not about one perfect diet. It is about ensuring patients receive early nutrition screening, personalised support, and dietary approaches that support treatment, muscle preservation, and energy levels.
Physical activity is another powerful but often underestimated therapy. Exercise during and after treatment is consistently associated with reduced fatigue, improved physical function, and better quality of life. Importantly, exercise in this context does not mean intense workouts. For many patients, it starts with gentle walking, light resistance work, or supervised rehabilitation programmes. Even small amounts of movement can improve circulation, mood, and metabolic health.
Sleep is another critical but often overlooked factor. Cancer and its treatment frequently disrupt sleep, which then affects mood, immune function, pain tolerance, and fatigue. When lifestyle approaches improve sleep quality, as suggested in some dietary intervention research, this can have wide-reaching effects across physical and emotional health.
Emotional and social well-being are equally important. Quality of life is not a “soft” outcome. It is central to how people live through treatment and survivorship. Research increasingly measures emotional functioning, social participation, and fatigue alongside clinical outcomes, recognising that living longer is only part of the goal. Living well matters just as much.
Avoiding tobacco remains one of the most powerful steps someone can take, even after diagnosis. Evidence shows that stopping smoking after a cancer diagnosis can improve outcomes and survival in several cancers. Alcohol reduction is also important, as alcohol is now clearly established as a carcinogen linked to multiple cancer types.
What makes lifestyle medicine so powerful is not perfection. It is accessibility. It is the idea that even in the middle of something overwhelming, there are small, meaningful actions that can support the body and mind. This might mean improving protein intake to preserve muscle, taking short daily walks, getting morning sunlight to support circadian rhythm, or finding emotional support through community, counselling, or peer groups.
At The Noakes Foundation, the goal is not to replace medical care, but to complement it with evidence-based lifestyle support delivered with empathy and scientific integrity. Patients deserve information that is practical, realistic, and free from blame. Cancer is complex and multifactorial. Lifestyle medicine is not about judgment. It is about support, resilience, and giving people tools that may improve how they feel, function, and live.
This World Cancer Day, the message is one of grounded hope. Medical treatments continue to advance, and alongside them, lifestyle medicine is emerging as a powerful partner. Not as an alternative, but as an ally. Not as a promise of a cure, but as a path toward better strength, better resilience, and better quality of life.
Because sometimes, in the middle of uncertainty and scanxiety, the most powerful thing we can offer is not just treatment, but support for the whole person.
If this topic sparked your curiosity and you want to go a little deeper, the Nutrition Network offers an online course called Cancer: A Metabolic Disease. It unpacks how metabolism, nutrition, and lifestyle strategies like therapeutic carbohydrate restriction and fasting may support cancer care alongside standard treatment. It’s fully online, self-paced, and taught by clinicians and researchers working in this space, so you can understand the science in a way that feels practical, clear, and actually useful.
Màrmol, J. M., Sánchez-de-Diego, C., Pradilla Dieste, A., Cerrada, E., & Rodriguez Yoldi, M. J. (2023). Insulin resistance in patients with cancer: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Clinical and Translational Oncology. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12094-023-03117-7
Muscaritoli, M., Arends, J., Aapro, M., Fromm, S., Haverkort, E., Kruizenga, H., … Bischoff, S. C. (2021). ESPEN practical guideline: Clinical nutrition in cancer. Clinical Nutrition, 40(5), 2898–2913. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clnu.2021.02.005
Campbell, K. L., Winters-Stone, K. M., Wiskemann, J., May, A. M., Schwartz, A. L., Courneya, K. S., … Schmitz, K. H. (2019). Exercise guidelines for cancer survivors: Consensus statement from an international multidisciplinary roundtable. Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, 51(11), 2375–2390. https://doi.org/10.1249/MSS.0000000000002116
Zhang, M., Zhang, Q., Huang, S., et al. (2025). Impact of ketogenic diets on cancer patient outcomes: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Frontiers in Nutrition, 12, 1535921. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnut.2025.1535921
