Malnutrition and Weight Loss as Prognostic Factors in the Survival of Patients with Gastric Cancer

Abstract

Introduction

There are limited prospective studies assessing the post-diagnosis nutritional status of patients with gastric cancer (GC). This study aimed to assess the association between nutritional status and three-year survival of patients with GC.

Methods

In this prospective study, we included all histologically confirmed GC patients admitted to the Imam Reza Hospital in Tabriz, Iran from September 2016 to October 2019. The nutritional status of patients was assessed using the Patient-Generated Subjective Global Assessment (PG-SGA) form. All patients were followed up every six months for three years. The overall survival (OS) was calculated from the diagnosis date to the date of death or last visit.

Results

In this study, 302 patients (mean age: 67.39 ± 12.04 years) with GC were included. The median OS was 11.00 mo, (95% CI: 80.03, 13.96). Only 28.4% of patients were well-nourished, and survived significantly longer than malnourished patients (20.5 vs. 8 mo, P = 0.01). The mortality hazard rate in patients with moderate and severe malnutrition was 2.04 times higher than well-nourished patients.

Conclusion

According to our results, the nutrition status of GC patients at the time of diagnosis was independently associated with their survival rate.

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank the staff of Pathology and Endoscopy Units at Tabriz University of Medical Sciences and all the patients and their families for their sincere collaboration.

Conflict of Interest

None.

Additional information

Funding

The Liver and Gastrointestinal Diseases Research Center at Tabriz University of Medical Sciences funded this study.