INTRODUCTION: Head and neck cancer patients are frequently malnourished at the time of diagnosis and prior to the beginning of treatment. Deterioration of the nutritional status results in an increase in chemo radiotherapy
related toxicity and this may increase the prolonged treatment time, which has been associated with poor clinical outcome. The present study aims to do nutritional assessment before and after chemo radiotherapy in head and neck cancer patients.
MATERIAL AND METHODS: The present study was undertaken at the Department of Radiation Oncology, Shri Ram Murti Smarak Institute of Medical Sciences, Bareilly. In this study, 50 patients of Head and neck tumours were enrolled and their nutrition was
assessed before and after chemoradiotherapy. Nutrition assessment was done using different laboratory parameters like haemoglobin, total leukocyte count, blood urea, serum creatinine and serum bilirubin. Anthropometric parameters used are Body mass
index, Skin fold thickness, and Mid-arm circumference. Nutritional risk indicator and PG-SGA score is measured before and after chemoradiotherapy. All the parameters were assessed and analysed using different statistical tests- Chi-square test,
Fisher Exact test and paired t test.RESULTS: Haemoglobin decrease was statistically significant during treatment (p less than 0.001) and the decrease in total leukocyte count during treatment was showing trend towards significance (p value-0.056).
There was deterioration in other parameters like blood urea, serum creatinine and serum bilirubin but was not statistically significant. Anthropometric parameters- Body mass index, mid-arm circumference and skin fold thickness and percent body fat
showed a significant change (p less than 0.00001). Nutritional risk indicator and PG-SGA class has decreased for majority of patients during treatment, the change is statistically significant (p less than 0.00001 and p=0.0251)
respectively.CONCLUSION: The nutrition has important role to play in the management of head and neck cancers by chemo radiotherapy. It helps to reduce the complications and improve the tolerance of chemo radiotherapy, thus avoiding treatment breaks
which may lead to failure of treatment.
