12 research outputs found
Risk, prevalence, and impact of hospital malnutrition in a Tertiary Care Referral University Hospital: a cross-sectional study
Malnutrition according to ESPEN definition predicts long-term mortality in general older population: Findings from the EPIDOS study-Toulouse cohort
Critical weight loss is a major prognostic indicator for disease-specific survival in patients with head and neck cancer receiving radiotherapy
<p>Background: Pre-treatment weight loss (WL) is a prognostic indicator for overall survival (OS) in head and neck cancer (HNC) patients. This study investigates the association between WL before or during radiotherapy and disease-specific survival (DSS) in HNC patients.</p><p>Methods: In 1340 newly diagnosed HNC patients, weight change was collected before and during (adjuvant) radiotherapy with curative intent. Critical WL during radiotherapy was defined as >5% WL during radiotherapy or >7.5% WL until week 12. Differences in 5-year OS and DSS between WL groups were analysed by Cox's regression with adjustments for important socio-demographic and tumour-related confounders.</p><p>Results: Before radiotherapy, 70% of patients had no WL, 16% had 5-10% WL, and 5% had >10% WL. Five-year OS and DSS rates for these groups were 71%, 59%, 47%, and 42% (P10% WL before radiotherapy remained significantly associated with a worse OS (HR 1.7; 95% CI 1.2-2.5; P = 0.002) and DSS (HR 2.1; 95% CI 1.2-3.5; P = 0.007). The 5-year OS and DSS rates for patients with critical WL during radiotherapy were 62% and 82%, compared with 70% and 89% for patients without critical WL (P = 0.01; P = 0.001). After adjustment, critical WL during radiotherapy remained significantly associated with a worse DSS (HR 1.7; 95% CI 1.2-2.4; P = 0.004).</p><p>Conclusion: Weight loss both before and during radiotherapy are important prognostic indicators for 5-year DSS in HNC patients. Randomised studies into the prognostic effect of nutritional intervention are needed.</p>