The effect of oral nutritional supplement therapy on nutritional status and quality of life in patients with esophageal cancer undergoing radiotherapy and chemotherapy: A protocol for randomized controlled trial.

BACKGROUND: The incidence of malnutrition in patients with esophageal cancer is high, which seriously affects the therapeutic effect and quality of life. Oral nutritional supplement is the first choice of nutritional support recommended by current guidelines, which can supplement the lack of energy and protein in patients with esophageal cancer, improve nutritional status and improve the quality of life, but there are few clinical studies. Therefore, the purpose of this randomized controlled trial is to evaluate the effect of oral nutritional supplement therapy on nutritional status and quality of life in patients with esophageal cancer treated undergoing radiotherapy and chemotherapy. METHODS: This is a prospective randomized controlled trial to study the effects of oral nutritional supplement therapy on nutritional status and quality of life in patients with esophageal cancer undergoing radiotherapy and chemotherapy. This study is approved by the Clinical Research Society of our hospital. Patients will be randomly divided into ONS group and traditional diet group. The nutritional status, quality of life score and adverse reactions will be observed before and after radiotherapy and chemotherapy. The data will be analyzed by SPSS 16.0. DISCUSSION: This study will evaluate the effect of oral nutritional supplement therapy on nutritional status and quality of life of patients with esophageal cancer undergoing radiotherapy and chemotherapy. The results of this experiment will establish clinical evidence for the application of oral nutritional supplement therapy in patients with esophageal cancer undergoing radiotherapy and chemotherapy. OSF REGISTRATION NUMBER: DOI 10.17605/OSF.IO/9ZW34.

The diagnostic value of intracavitary electrocardiogram for verifying tip position of peripherally inserted central catheters in cancer patients: A retrospective multicenter study.

PURPOSE: To evaluate the feasibility and accuracy of intracavitary electrocardiogram for verifying tip position of peripherally inserted central catheters in cancer patients during follow-up period. METHODS: From March 2015 to October 2015, 126 patients involved in eight hospitals who underwent peripherally inserted central catheter placement received intracavitary electrocardiogram and chest X-ray to verify position of the catheter tip during follow-up period. Their intracavitary electrocardiogram was compared with surface electrocardiogram to judge catheter tip landing zone in one of three different anatomical zones. The amplitude of intracavitary electrocardiogram P wave and the ratio of intracavitary electrocardiogram P wave/surface electrocardiogram P wave were measured and showed correlation with catheter tip position confirmed by chest X-ray. Based on chest X-ray principle, all the cases were assigned into three intracavitary electrocardiogram groups to explore the optimal cut-off values for intracavitary electrocardiogram P wave and intracavitary electrocardiogram P wave/surface electrocardiogram P wave by analyzing the receiver operating characteristic. RESULTS: No technique-related complications or adverse events occurred in this study. The matching rate between intracavitary electrocardiogram and chest X-ray method was 93.7%. The optimal cut-off values for intracavitary electrocardiogram P wave were set from 3.15 to 3.75 mV, and intracavitary electrocardiogram P wave/surface electrocardiogram P wave from 1.65 to 3.25. CONCLUSIONS: It is demonstrated in this retrospective multicenter study that the intracavitary electrocardiogram method for verifying tip position of peripherally inserted central catheter during follow-up period is feasible and accurate in all adult patients with cancer.

Superior success rate of intracavitary electrocardiogram guidance for peripherally inserted central catheter placement in patients with cancer: A randomized open-label controlled multicenter study.

BACKGROUND: Intracavitary electrocardiogram (IC ECG) guidance emerges as a new technique for peripherally inserted central catheters (PICCs) placement and demonstrates many potential advantages in recent observational studies. AIMS: To determine whether IC ECG-guided PICCs provide more accurate positioning of catheter tips compared to conventional anatomical landmarks in patients with cancer undergoing chemotherapy. METHODS: In this multicenter, open-label, randomized controlled study (ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT02409589), a total of 1,007 adult patients were assigned to receive either IC ECG guidance (n = 500) or anatomical landmark guidance (n = 507) for PICC positioning. The confirmative catheter tip positioning x-ray data were centrally interpreted by independent radiologists. All reported analyses in the overall population were performed on an intention-to-treat basis. Analyses of pre-specified subgroups and a selected large subpopulation were conducted to explore consistency and accuracy. RESULTS: In the IC ECG-guided group, the first-attempt success rate was 89.2% (95% confidence interval [CI], 86.5% to 91.9%), which was significantly higher than 77.4% (95% CI, 73.7% to 81.0%) in the anatomical landmark group (P < 0.0001). This trend of superiority of IC ECG guidance was consistently noted in almost all prespecified patient subgroups and two selected large subpopulations, even when using optimal target rates for measurement. In contrast, the superiority nearly disappeared when PICCs were used via the left instead of right arms (interaction P-value = 0.021). No catheter-related adverse events were reported during the PICC intra-procedures in either group. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings indicated that the IC ECG-guided method had a more favorable positioning accuracy versus traditional anatomical landmarks for PICC placement in adult patients with cancer undergoing chemotherapy. Furthermore, there were no significant safety concerns reported for catheterization using the two techniques.