A matter of taste: making the distinction between taste and flavor is essential for improving management of dysgeusia

Taste alteration and impact on quality of life after head and neck radiotherapy

“…Additional concomitant chemotherapy was given to 9 patients according to their cancer entity and stage. Of the total 22 patients, 10 had oral cancer followed by cancers of nasopharynx (2), maxilla and mandible (2), parotid (2), lips (2), oropharynx (2), and hypopharynx (2).…”

Chemosensory Science in the Context of Cancer Treatment: Implications for Patient Care

“…Although a systematic review of the cancer treatment literature (Hovan et al 2010) suggested that up to 76 % of patients treated for cancer experience taste problems and undoubtedly complaints of this nature are ubiquitous among cancer patients, this review was subsequently criticised as taste was incorrectly defined, contributing further to clinician confusion. (Boltong et al 2011a) Linguistics work by Boltong, Keast and Aranda (Boltong et al 2011b(Boltong et al , 2012 has built on the notion made by Duffy et al that an increased use of patient's self-reported symptoms, including the consequences of flavour problems (such as altered eating patterns, addition of seasoning to foods) in the assessment of taste and smell and 'other' alterations is warranted and, in fact, has increasingly been relied upon. (Gamper et al 2012) Building on Melzack and Torgerson's 1970s language of pain work, Boltong and colleagues brought together words used by cancer patients to describe their experience of 'taste problems' in the clinical oncology setting.…”

‘Taste’ changes: A problem for patients and their dietitians

“…Indirect measures are usually by way of self‐report questionnaires and clinical observations. Indirect tools usually measure other elements of flavour (although taste is mentioned) and are not validated for assessing taste function per se …”