Loss of Taste Following Radiation Therapy
I completed 6 weeks of IMRT to the right frontal lobe two weeks ago. It went well, with the only effect during treatment being a small amount of hair loss. Recently I noticed that some foods were tasting sort of bland. I wasn’t tasting the umami savory flavors that I was used to. I did a search online and found a paper from the NIH that discussed this loss of taste. Evidently it’s not uncommon in people undergoing radiation treatment in the head and neck regions. It typically starts around the 5th week of treatment and returns to normal within a year or less. A link to the NIH paper is below. I thought this was interesting since there wasn’t a mention of loss of taste in the information I got from the clinic. Has anyone else experienced a diminishment or loss of taste following radiation treatment?
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6244914/
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My husband had 3 weeks of Proton Beam radiation for a glioblastoma in May. He's taste seemed off and water wasn't even tasting good. He was a big water drinker prior to surgery and radiation. Food and water are just now starting to taste more normal.