Abstract CN20
Background
NUTRISCORE is a validated nutritional screening tool for oncology outpatients setting, that stands out for its sensitivity, specificity, and simplicity. Our goal was to identify those patients with NUTRISCORE < 5 (without risk of malnutrition) who were not referred to the clinical nutrition unit (CNU) and to check whether they completed specific cancer treatment without nutritional complications or had to be referred to the CNU for nutritional assessment.
Methods
All patients (pts) attending the first oncology nursing visit of the colorectal cancer functional unit between April and November 2021 were prospectively included. The NUTRISCORE was computed at the initial assessment. The medical records of patients with score < 5 who were not referred to the CNU were selected to analyse whether they had developed nutritional complications after completing specific cancer treatment and required referral to the CNU.
Results
From the 92 pts included prospectively 19 pts (20.65%) were referred to the CNU at the first nursing visit and 70 pts were not referred (76.08%) as NUTRISCORE scores < 5. The mean age of the non-referred patients was 68.86 years. Of the 70 pts that weren’t referred, 22 were finally referred (31.42%) at some point during the cancer treatment. The reasons for referral were: 63.63% by protocol during colorectal surgery admission; 9.09% for being within a clinical trial that required nutritional assessment; 4.54% were being followed by CNU previously. Only the remaining 22.74% were referred due to nutritional complications: 18.18% pts related to tumour symptomatology (peritonitis, subocclusion...) and 4.54% for complications arise during the waiting time between the end of neoadjuvant and surgery. There were 3 pts with severe malnutrition, 10 pts with mild to moderate malnutrition, and 9 pts were well nourished. Oral nutritional support as required in 12 pts; 5 pts were received an adapted diet and 1 pts required treatment with folic acid + vitamin B12.
Conclusions
NUTRISCORE is a nutritional screening tool that need to be used also during the follow up visits to detect nutritional complications associated to treatment toxicity.
Clinical trial identification
Editorial acknowledgement
Legal entity responsible for the study
L. Raventos, R. Legido-Diaz, L. Arribas.
Funding
Has not received any funding.
Disclosure
All authors have declared no conflicts of interest.