Impact of the Nutritional Status on Clinical Outcomes of Patients with Coronavirus Disease Undergoing Cancer Treatment

Abstract

Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is a critical and potentially fatal condition. The nutritional status affects the evolution and clinical outcome throughout the disease course among factors influencing the patient prognosis. In patients with cancer, the Patient-Generated Subjective Global Assessment (PG-SGA) is the preferred instrument for assessing the nutritional status. The aim of this retrospective cross-sectional study was to evaluate the impact of the nutritional status on the clinical outcome of patients with COVID-19 undergoing cancer treatment. We enrolled 52 patients with cancer under outpatient follow-up who had been diagnosed with COVID-19 during the cancer treatment course. The PG-SGA instrument revealed age (p = 0.045) and nutritional status (p = 0.042) before infection as the main risk factors of death from COVID-19. In addition, the risk of mortality due to COVID-19 increased with the degree of malnutrition. Twelve (23.1%) of the 52 patients showed no negative effects related to COVID-19, and age below 65 years was considered to be a protective factor.

Acknowledgments

We thank the Women’s Charity Society - Syrian Lebanese Hospital for the availability of the resources and materials required to prepare the study. We also thank the Food and Nutrition Service team for their assistance and support throughout this joint study.

Authors’ Contributions

Rebeca Prado Crisóstomo, Tainá Teixeira Ortega, and Ana Carolina Leão Silva designed and led the project. Erika Yuri Hirose Murahara and Thais Giovaninni Roberto contributed to the project’s design and review. Amanda Guimarães Castro Custódio and Janilene Medeiros da Silva Pescuma assisted in data collection. Ana Lúcia Chalhoub Chediac Rodrigues and Ariane Nadolskis Severine coordinated and supervised the preparation of the project.

Disclosure Statement

All authors are employees of the Syrian Lebanese Hospital.

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.