Effect of Early Nutrition Intervention on Advanced Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma Patients Receiving Chemoradiotherapy

e17504 Background: Patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) frequently developed the problem of malnutrition at the time of diagnosis. Chemoradiotherapy (CRT) can even worsen the situation. Therefore, nutritional intervention should be applied to prevent CRT-associated weight loss and interruption of CRT. However, it is still controversial if early nutritional intervention is beneficial to NPC patients with CRT. This study is to investigate the influence of early nutritional intervention on advanced NPC patients with CRT by evaluating the nutritional status and CRT treatment tolerance. Methods: A cohort of 78 stage III-IV nasopharyngeal carcinoma patients was divided into early (n = 46) and late (n = 32) nutrition intervention groups. The early group of patients received nutritional support at the beginning of CRT, whereas the late group received such a support until development of the side effects, like 50% required oral dietary intake or > 10% weight loss. The data were collected and statistically analyzed. Results: There was no significant difference in baseline clinical characteristics between these two groups, suggesting that no selection bias occurred. Both groups of patients had weight loss at the end of CRT and 3 months thereafter. However, at the later time point, the early group started to regain their weight, while the late group continued to lose weight. At both time points, the early group had a lower percentage of weight loss than the late group. Similar results were also obtained for BMI, albumin, and pre-albumin levels (All p< 0.05). Besides, the early group showed a lower rate of advanced mucositis, a lower percentage of patients with more than 3 days RT breaks, fewer days of RT delayed for toxicity, and a lower percentage of patients with unplanned hospitalizations (All p< 0.05). A linear correlation was also found between the percentage of weight loss and the number of days of RT delayed. Conclusions: Early nutritional intervention provides beneficial outcomes to NPC patients by maintaining their nutritional status and enhancing CRT treatment tolerance. Our results also indicated early nutrition intervention may reduce the hospital cost and improve patients’ life quality.

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Impact of Early Incorporation of Nutrition Interventions as a Component of Cancer Therapy in Adults: A Review

Nutrients ◽

10.3390/nu12113403 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 12 (11) ◽

pp. 3403

Author(s):

Julie Richards ◽

Mary Beth Arensberg ◽

Sara Thomas ◽

Kirk W. Kerr ◽

Refaat Hegazi ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Quality Of Life ◽

Hospital Readmissions ◽

Nutrition Intervention ◽

Nutrition Status ◽

Future Research ◽

Nutrition Interventions ◽

Oncology Patients ◽

Oral Nutrition ◽

Early Nutrition

Malnutrition is prevalent among oncology patients and can adversely affect clinical outcomes, prognosis, quality of life, and survival. This review evaluates current trends in the literature and reported evidence around the timing and impact of specific nutrition interventions in oncology patients undergoing active cancer treatment. Previous research studies (published 1 January 2010–1 April 2020) were identified and selected using predefined search strategy and selection criteria. In total, 15 articles met inclusion criteria and 12/15 articles provided an early nutrition intervention. Identified studies examined the impacts of nutrition interventions (nutrition counseling, oral nutrition supplements, or combination of both) on a variety of cancer diagnoses. Nutrition interventions were found to improve body weight and body mass index, nutrition status, protein and energy intake, quality of life, and response to cancer treatments. However, the impacts of nutrition interventions on body composition, functional status, complications, unplanned hospital readmissions, and mortality and survival were inconclusive, mainly due to the limited number of studies evaluating these outcomes. Early nutrition interventions were found to improve health and nutrition outcomes in oncology patients. Future research is needed to further evaluate the impacts of early nutrition interventions on patients’ outcomes and explore the optimal duration and timing of nutrition interventions.

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