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Clinical nutrition, enteral and parenteral nutrition

A multicentre study to implement nutritional risk screening and evaluate clinical outcome and quality of life in patients with cancer

European Journal of Clinical Nutrition volume 67, pages 732–737 (2013)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Background/objectives:

To implement nutritional risk screening and evaluate the relationship of nutritional risk to complication rate and quality of life in patients with cancer.

Subjects/methods:

A total of 687 patients with cancer from two teaching hospitals in China were consecutively enrolled. Data were collected on the nutritional risk screening, application of nutritional support, complication and quality of life.

Results:

The prevalence of nutritional risk at admission among the total, younger and elderly patients was 45.6%, 38.7% and 58.0%, respectively. There was a significant increase in the prevalence from admission to 2 weeks after admission in all patients (P=0.011). The prevalence in those patients ⩾70 years was significantly higher than that in the younger ones (P<0.001). The highest prevalence of nutritional risk was in pancreas cancer (81.8%). Only 46.7% of at-risk patients received nutritional support and the average PN:EN ratio was 7.0:1. Complications were noted in 29.0% of all patients and were significantly more frequent in ‘at-risk’ patients (P<0.001). Among the scales of quality of life (SF-36), the scores of physical functioning (P<0.001), role-physical (P<0.001), bodily pain (P=0.012), energy/fatigue (P<0.001) and general health (P<0.001) were significant lower in the patients at risk.

Conclusions:

A large proportion of cancer inpatients were at nutritional risk and tended to worsen during the course of admission, which has been associated with increased complication rate and lower scores of quality of life. The application of PN and EN was inappropriate in patients with cancer in China.

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Acknowledgements

We appreciate the Chinese Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition for the support of this study. Moreover, we convey our deep gratitude to the staffs in the Peking Union Medical College Hospital and Fifth Affiliated Hospital of Nanchang University for their kindly cooperation and support. This work was financially supported by CSPEN and a grant from Wu JP Medical Research Foundation (no. 2005-01).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Clinical Nutrition, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Peking Union Medical College, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Beijing, China

    K Yu & S-l He

  2. Department of Nutrition, The Fifth Affiliated Hospital of Nanchang University, Fuzhou, China

    X-r Zhou

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  1. K Yu
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Correspondence to K Yu.

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Yu, K., Zhou, Xr. & He, Sl. A multicentre study to implement nutritional risk screening and evaluate clinical outcome and quality of life in patients with cancer. Eur J Clin Nutr 67, 732–737 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/ejcn.2013.81

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