Menu
Sign In Search Podcasts Libraries Charts People & Topics Add Podcast API Blog Pricing
Podcast Image

The Food Programme

Could Food Do More in Cancer Care and Prevention?

26 Jun 2026

Transcription

Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.

Chapter 1: What role does food play in cancer care and prevention?

0.031 - 3.536

This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK.

0

5.939 - 6.28 Mike Grella

You ready?

0

7.742 - 9.404 Elise Hulme

Exclusively on Disney+.

0

10.465 - 11.547

Every second counts, baby.

0

11.907 - 16.353 Elise Hulme

The multi-award winning series The Bear is back for its final season.

16.974 - 18.276 Mike Grella

The restaurant is flooded.

19.37 - 20.552 Elise Hulme

And it's the last chance.

20.812 - 22.275 Mike Grella

I am selling the building.

22.295 - 23.136 Elise Hulme

To save it all.

Chapter 2: How has Sheila Dillon's personal experience shaped her views on diet and cancer?

494.774 - 497.058 Sheila Dillon

I work at the food program, Natalie.

0

497.779 - 499.622 Clare Doney

Maybe more intentional about some.

0

499.642 - 523.792 Sheila Dillon

I was more intentional. And what were you kind of hoping for? I was hoping that it would boost my immune system. It would work along with the chemo. I also took curcumin, which is the compound within turmeric. That was the main supplement I took. So I was on this chemo. I responded really well within eight weeks. My numbers had dropped. You can't prove it was the food.

0

523.812 - 524.312

I can't, no.

0

524.392 - 548.125 Sheila Dillon

That's the problem because at the minute, you know, I mean, I may go off this, you know, I may fall off the cliff again any time now. But, you know, my oncologist today is the same oncologist that I saw then. And he says my immune system had really recovered in a way that he often hadn't seen in cancer patients. And two or three years ago, he said, what is it you're doing now?

548.145 - 564.45 Sheila Dillon

What is it you're doing now? I said, well, you know, I'm doing... curcumin and I'm eating all these vegetables and I'm taking mushroom supplements and I'm doing this and that. And he said, well, whatever you're doing, keep doing it. And that's what a lot of oncologists, you know, that's the position they're in.

565.131 - 578.172 Sheila Dillon

But as we hear in this program from Professor Robert Thomas and what we hear from the head of research at the World Cancer Research Fund is that we know a lot more now about cancer

578.152 - 602.488 Sheila Dillon

the effect of diet on the body on the immune system we just know a lot more we do know a lot more which is what seems to have pushed the government into a commitment in that new national plan that everyone diagnosed with cancer will have access at least by 2029 to pre-habilitation and what is that you might ask

602.468 - 618.311 Sheila Dillon

Well, Claire Doney is a nurse and the clinical lead for Living With and Beyond Cancer with the Northern Cancer Alliance, a group of NHS trusts in the North East. They have been pioneering prehabilitation.

Chapter 3: What does the National Cancer Plan for England say about diet?

1385.856 - 1400.423 Professor Robert Thomas

And the grade A type, double-blind, randomised, robust data research, seems to be a little bit lacking, and that's what the authors of these documents tend to look at, which is why we as a cancer unit are concentrating on that sort of trial.

0

1400.892 - 1409.365 Sheila Dillon

I wondered what Professor Thomas made of England's cancer plan's new emphasis on prehabilitation.

0

1409.605 - 1427.592 Professor Robert Thomas

The evidence for prehab is very, very strong. In fact, the Royal College of Anaesthetics, in partnership with Macmillan, just before Covid, had advisory committee and we looked at the... I was on that and we looked at the evidence. You know, people come out of hospital quicker, they have less complications such as blood clots.

0

1427.572 - 1434.508 Professor Robert Thomas

And, you know, there's a school of thought that it could, you know, the tumour could be altered. So when you manipulated it, they could have better outcomes.

0

1434.748 - 1445.513 Sheila Dillon

And what about when you're being a more conventional oncologist at Addenbrookes Hospital, which is the big teaching hospital in Cambridge? How do you talk to your patients there?

1446.235 - 1465.846 Professor Robert Thomas

Well, I don't see my two roles as very different. I think all oncologists should be integrating lifestyle and nutritional advice as part of their main treatment. But I have to say, there are some colleagues which do, and others say I'm just too busy. But it's what patients want to hear. They want to know how to help themselves.

1465.946 - 1486.114 Sheila Dillon

But I've spent a lot of time lying on those day beds in the chemotherapy day wards. And... They mean so well, but somebody will ask a question about eating and they say, it doesn't matter, love. It doesn't matter what you eat. And I want to stand up and go, that's absolutely wrong.

1486.938 - 1498.777 Sheila Dillon

Because, you know, there's so much goodness and kindness in what is being said and how it's being said and the intention. You would get really, really confused.

1498.797 - 1518.86 Professor Robert Thomas

A lot of patients are told the wrong thing, unfortunately. In fact, we did an audit recently where we looked at what patients have been told and we put it into three categories. virtually nothing, the right information and the wrong information. And it was 65% either of the wrong information or not enough. I saw a patient the other day who's a big city executive.

Comments

There are no comments yet.

Please log in to write the first comment.