Mirjam has a background as clinical dietitian and obtained a Master’s degree in Health Sciences (Nutrition and Health) at the VU University of Amsterdam. Her project focuses on chemotherapy-induced smell and taste changes in childhood cancer patients. Smell and taste changes seem a prominent reason for inadequate food intake among children with cancer, consequently affecting nutritional status and prognosis. However, this has been never studied in childhood cancer patients. The overall aim of this research project is to study smell and taste (dys)function of childhood cancer patients and its possible consequences on food intake, eating behavior, body weight, and quality of life.
This project is studied in collaboration with the Maastricht University.
Mirjam is supervised by Dr. W.J.E. Tissing, Dr. R.C. Havermans and Dr. I. IJpma.