Relationship between nutrition impact symptoms and fat-free mass in patients with head and neck cancer during radiotherapy / 中华临床营养杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To observe the changes of nutrition impact symptoms (NIS) and fat-free mass and analyze the relationship between them in patients with head and neck cancer (HNC) during radiotherapy.Methods:A convenient sampling method was adopted to select HNC patients who received radiotherapy in the outpatient clinic of department of radiotherapy for head and neck cancer in a cancer hospital in Beijing from March 2017 to January 2020. The nutrition impact symptoms (NIS) were assessed by a nutrition impact symptoms checklist and the fat free mass was assessed by bioelectrical impedance analysis at three time points: before radiotherapy (T1), during radiotherapy (T2) and at the end of radiotherapy (T3). The Generalized Estimating Equations (GEE) was used to analyze the relationship between them.Results:A total of 542 HNC patients were included in the analysis. During radiotherapy, the patients' NIS number and score presented an increasing trend, reaching the highest level and peaked at the end of radiotherapy. The change of fat-free mass showed a decreasing trend and reached the minimum at the end of radiotherapy. Patients with higher NIS scores had more percentage loss of fat-free mass.Conclusions:During radiotherapy, patients with HNC showed an increase in NIS score and lost fat-free mass. Patients with higher NIS score lost more percentage of fat-free mass, which suggested that clinical medical staff should pay attention to NIS management and take comprehensive intervention measures in time to reduce the loss of fat-free mass.