https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2317-9376
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Abstract
Introduction
Nutriscore is a malnutrition screening tool designed specifically for cancer patients. Our objective was to assess its performance in hospitalized cancer patients.
Patients and methods
Adult patients diagnosed with any solid neoplasm hospitalized in Medical Oncology were included. In the first 24–48 h, of admission they were screened with Nutriscore and Malnutrition universal screening tool (MUST). Both tests were compared using chi-square, kappa index and ROC curve. Nutriscore sensitivity (S), specificity (Sp) and predictive values (PV) were calculated using MUST as a reference.
Results
A total of 93 patients were included. The most frequent tumors were lung (36.6%), colorectal (24.8%) and breast (8.6%). MUST identified 69.9% of the patients at nutritional risk, and Nutriscore 44.1% (p < 0.001), with a low kappa index [k = 0.38 (95% CI 0.23 to 0.54)]. The AUC of the ROC curve for Nutriscore with respect to the MUST was 0.739. Nutriscore showed S = 58.6 (95% CI 45.7 to 71.2), Sp = 89.3% (95% CI 76.0 to 100.0%), VP + = 92.7% (95% CI 83.5 at 100.0%) and VP- = 48.1% (95% CI 33.5 to 62.6).
Conclusions
Nutriscore did not provided better screening results in hospitalized cancer patients than a validated tool such as MUST.
Author Contribution Statement
Conception or desing of the work: Alfonso Vidal-Casariego, Emilio Amigo-Otero. Data collection: Emilio Amigo-Otero. Data analysis and interpretation: Alfonso Vidal-Casariego, Emilio Amigo-Otero. Drafting the article: Alfonso Vidal-Casariego, Emilio Amigo-Otero. Critical revision fo the article: Francisco Pita-Gutiérrez, Gloria Lugo-Rodríguez, Carmen Almeida-Seoane, Teresa Martínez-Ramonde. Final approval of the version to be published: Alfonso Vidal-Casariego, Emilio Amigo-Otero, Francisco Pita-Gutiérrez, Gloria Lugo-Rodríguez, Carmen Almeida-Seoane, Teresa Martínez-Ramonde.
Disclosure Statement
None of the authors have any conflicts of interest to declare.