Nutritional Status, Functional Status, and Quality of Life – What is the Impact and Relationship on Cancer Patients?

Abstract

Rationale and aims

Malnutrition is common and multifactorial in cancer patients (CP), combining the systemic inflammatory process with decreased food intake, loss of muscle and bone mass, and decreased functional status (FS). We aimed to track and evaluate the nutritional status (NS) of CP; associate results between hospitalized patients (HP) and day hospital patients (DHP); associate NS with tumor, symptoms, and FS.

Methods

Cross-sectional observational study in HP or DHP from Garcia de Orta Hospital, over 18 years old. NS was monitored and evaluated using Nutritional Risk Screening (NRS-2002), Patient-Generated Subjective Global Assessment (PG-SGA), and anthropometric and biochemical parameters. To assess FS we used the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG), Karnofsky Performance Scale Index (KPSI), and handgrip dynamometer (HGD).

Results

The 265 CP (114-HP, 151-DHP), of which 34.2%-HP and 17.2%-DHP had low BMI. From NRS-2002, 86.0% and 35.8% were respectively at nutritional risk. Using PG-SGA, 93.0% and 39.7% were respectively malnourished. PG-SGA were positively correlated with ECOG (p < 0.01) and negatively correlated with KPSI (p < 0.01), BMI (p < 0.01), and handgrip strength-HGS (p < 0.01-DHP and p < 0.05-HP).

Conclusions

PG-SGA and FS scales are appropriate and validated tools for early identification of malnutrition and FS in CP. HGD can be a useful tool for assessing FS and NS.

Acknowledgments

The authors thank the staff at the Department of Hematoncology of Garcia de Orta Hospital for their cooperation. We would like to thank, particularly, the patients for their valuable contribution to this study.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Funding

The authors received no specific funding for this work, but it was supported by the Nutrition Department within Garcia de Orta Hospital.