2121P - Association between nutritional status and adverse events in gastrointestinal cancer patients undergoing outpatient chemotherapy in Japan

Background

Recently, the development of anticancer drug administration methods and advances in supportive care for side effects have made it possible to safely perform chemotherapy through outpatient visits. Outpatient chemotherapy is important for maintaining the patient's quality of life (QOL). Side effects of chemotherapy include anorexia, nausea, dysgeusia, and oral mucosal disorders, which affect diet, and weight loss affecting the effectiveness and prognosis. In particular, patients with gastrointestinal cancer are considered to have a high nutritional risk status. We assessed the nutritional status of patients with gastrointestinal cancer during outpatient chemotherapy and found an association with adverse events symptoms.

Methods

The Tohoku University School of Medicine IRB approved this study (2018-1-176); patients provided written informed consent. Patients undergoing outpatient chemotherapy were enrolled, nutritional status, self-assessment of adverse events and depression by The Depression Scale Epidemiological Research Center (CES-D) were assessed. Responses were analyzed by Chi-squared test, ANOVA, Spearman's correlation coefficient, and multiple regression analysis. p<0.05 was considered significant. All statistical analyses were performed using SPSS (ver. 21).

Results

Valid responses were obtained from 120 patients with gastrointestinal cancers including pancreatic, colorectal, gastric, and esophageal cancers. The mean age was 65.2 (±9.6) years. Side effects of chemotherapy were fatigue in 99 (83.9%), neuropathy in 88 (73.3%), and dysgeusia in 85 (70.8%). Subjects were classified into 70 normal persons, 32 malnourished, 6 pre-cachexia, and 12 cachexia according to the nutrition assessment classification by Glasgow prognostic score (GPS). Although GPS classification did not show a significant relationship with the basic attributes, there was a significant relationship between anorexia (r=0.26, p=0.004), taste change (r=0.26, p=0.005), dry mouth (r=0.18, p=0.049), and edema (r=0.22, p=0.018).

Conclusions

Adverse events during chemotherapy including anorexia, dysgeusia, dry mouth and edema would have negative impact on nutritional status.

Clinical trial identification

Editorial acknowledgement

Legal entity responsible for the study

The authors.

Funding

JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number JP 16K07140.

Disclosure

All authors have declared no conflicts of interest.