Abstract 215P
Background
Exercise and eating habits play a fundamental role in patients with lung cancer, having an impact on mortality, duration of hospitalizations, post-surgical complications, sarcopenia, quality of life and even in overall survival. There are studies which also show how physical exercise can improve the response to immunotherapy. However, we are unaware of the lifestyle habits of our patients, a knowledge gap in our therapeutic approach which we seek to address with this study.
Methods
Cross-sectional observational study featuring patients diagnosed with lung cancer at the Medical Oncology Service of the Nuestra Señora de Candelaria University Hospital, Santa Cruz de Tenerife. We tested the statistical significance of lifestyle habit changes as measured by a form and IPAQ, MUST, and SARC-F surveys using chi-squared tests.
Results
We involved 43 patients with a mean age of 65 years. 84% had stage-four cancer, 77% were receiving first-line treatment and 60% were being treated with immunotherapy. 100% of individuals considered their diet as an important pillar in their cancer disease. However, we found that only 50% had discussed aspects of their nutrition with their oncologist. 77% considered that a healthy lifestyle could help reduce the adverse effects of the treatment, and 21% did not know whether it could help. The validated test results showed that 56% had an intermediate-high risk of malnutrition according to the MUST test and 19% had risk of sarcopenia according to the SARC-F test. Patients receiving treatment via immunotherapy or targeted therapy had a lower risk of malnutrition than those receiving other treatments (43.8% vs 63%), although this result did not reach statistical significance (p = 0.220). 49% were sedentary according to the IPAQ test and 83% who did not perform physical activity would start an adapted exercise program if it were available.
Conclusions
The results show that most patients have a general awareness about the importance of the lifestyle during treatment, and the need to invest time and resources to improve their clinical outcomes. However, they could benefit from more clarity about the specific nutritional and fitness initiatives they could undertake, and their ranked impact on their health.
Legal entity responsible for the study
The authors.
Funding
Has not received any funding.
Disclosure
All authors have declared no conflicts of interest.