Why Proper Nutrition is Essential for Cancer Care

Domina Kekez, MD

Medical Oncologist
Department of Gastrointestinal Tumors
University Hospital Centre Zagreb
Zagreb, Croatia

Domina Kekez is a medical oncologist in the Department of Gastrointestinal Tumors at University Hospital Centre Zagreb in Croatia. She is also an instructor in the Department of Pathophysiology at the University of Zagreb School of Dental Medicine.

Dr. Kekez received her medical degree from the University of Zagreb and completed a residency in medical oncology at University Hospital Centre Zagreb. 

Dr. Kekez has been a subinvestigator for several oncology clinical trials, including a study comparing targeted therapy or immunotherapy versus platinum-based chemotherapy in patients with cancer of unknown primary site; a study of atezolizumab with lenvatinib or sorafenib versus lenvatinib or  sorafenib alone in hepatocellular carcinoma previously treated with atezolizumab and bevacizumab; and a noninterventional study of atezolizumab under real-world conditions in patients treated in routine clinical practice. 

Richard JE Skipworth, MBChB, MD

Consultant in Upper Gastrointestinal and General Surgery
Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh
Honorary Professor in Surgery
University of Edinburgh
NHS Research Scotland Clinician
Edinburgh, Scotland

Richard Skipworth is a consultant in upper gastrointestinal and general surgery at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, an Honorary Professor in Surgery at the University of Edinburgh, and a clinician at NHS Research Scotland.

Dr. Skipworth received his bachelor of medicine and surgery degree and his research doctorate of medicine degree from the University of Edinburgh. In addition to postgraduate training at various hospitals in Scotland and England, he completed a fellowship in upper gastrointestinal surgery at Royal North Shore Hospital in Sydney, Australia.

Dr. Skipworth’s research focuses on cancer cachexia, particularly the molecular mechanisms of muscle and fat wasting in cancer patients. He is lead and chief investigator of the Edinburgh Cachexia Group in Clinical Surgery at the University of Edinburgh, which is interested in cachexia, nutritional status, and body composition in cancer patients, and the impact that these factors exert on patient symptomatology and prognosis. He is also co-chair of the Caledonian Cachexia Collaborative, a consortium of Scottish universities involved in cachexia research.

Dr. Skipworth is currently treasurer of the Cancer Cachexia Society and a board member of the Society on Sarcopenia, Cachexia, and Wasting Disorders. 

Karin Jordan, MD, PhD

Head, Department for Hematology, Oncology, and Palliative Medicine
Ernst von Bergmann Hospital
Potsdam, Germany

Dr Karin Jordan is Head of the Department for Hematology, Oncology, and Palliative Medicine at Ernst von Bergmann Hospital in Potsdam, Germany. Dr Karin Jordan graduated from Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg, Germany. Following a number of posts at the University Hospital Halle and Bernward Hospital, Hildesheim, she was appointed as a specialist in Internal Medicine and Haematology and Oncology at the University of Halle-Wittenberg. 

She was the vice executive director of the ethics committee at the University of Halle from 2009 to 2015. From 2017 to 2021 she was the leading senior physician of the Department of Haematology and Oncology at the University Hospital in Heidelberg, Germany. Since 2021 she is head of department at the Ernst von Bergmann Clinic in Potsdam, where she leads the Clinic for Haematology, Oncology and Palliative Medicine. 

Dr Jordan’s major area of interest is supportive care. She is currently on the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) faculty for the supportive and palliative care track for the 2024 and 2025 annual congresses; chair of the ESMO preceptorship course for supportive and palliative care; associate chair of the German Association of Supportive Care in Oncology (AGSMO); founding member and associate chair of the supportive care study group within the Association of Medical Oncology (AIO); and an associate editor of the supportive care section of the Annals of Oncology. She is also ESMO educational chair for the 2024 ESMO congress. 

Dr Jordan is guidelines chair for ESMO’s Supportive and Palliative Care section; in this role, she has coordinated 8 ESMO guidelines to date. In addition, she is a panel member for the American Society of Clinical Oncology antiemetic guidelines, and she is guidelines coordinator (along with Dr. Franziska Jahn) of the update and extension of the S3 guideline “Supportive Therapy in Oncological Patients” mandated by the German Society for Hematology and Medical Oncology (DGHO), the German  Society for Radiation Oncology (DEGRO), and the Working Group on Supportive Measures in  Oncology of the German Cancer Society (DKG) (AGSMO). 

Professor Jordan has authored and co-authored more than 200 publications. Her major area of interest is supportive care with a special focus on antiemetic treatment of chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting and side effects of new drugs.