Nutrition is well-recognized as a necessary component of educational programs for physicians. This is to be valued in that of all factors affecting health in the United States, none is more important than nutrition. This can be argued from various perspectives, including health promotion, disease prevention, and therapeutic management. In all cases, serious consideration of nutrition related issues in the practice is seen to be one means to achieve cost-effective medical care. These modules were designed to provide more practical knowledge for health care providers, and in particular primary care physicians. This module is designed to present a variety of modes of nutritional intervention that can be used to forestall or correct the progressive stages of nutritional deterioration frequently seen in patients with chronic illness. Also, a longitudinal model of nutritional intervention is presented to help the physician choose the best form of dietary intervention for typical longitudinal-care patients. Highlighted is the nutritional care of cancer patients. Included are learning goals and objectives, self-checks of achievement with regard to goals, references for the physician and for the physician to give to the patient, and a list of laboratory signs of nutritional deficiency helpful in determining nutriture. (CW)