Huang,Jian-Feng, Sun,Ren-Juan, Jiang,Wen-Jun, Wu,Ping, Zhang,Li, Xu,Mei-Qin, Zhou,Le-Yuan, Pang,Qing-Feng, Wu,Ya-Xian, Yang,Bo, and Zhang,Fu-Zheng
Jian-Feng Huang,1,* Ren-Juan Sun,1,* Wen-Jun Jiang,1 Ping Wu,2 Li Zhang,1 Mei-Qin Xu,1 Le-Yuan Zhou,1 Qing-Feng Pang,3 Ya-Xian Wu,3 Bo Yang,1 Fu-Zheng Zhang1 1Department of Radiation Oncology, Affiliated Hospital of Jiangnan University, Wuxi, Jiangsu, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Nutriology, Affiliated Hospital of Jiangnan University, Wuxi, Jiangsu, People’s Republic of China; 3Department of Physiopathology, Wuxi Medical School of Jiangnan University, Wuxi, Jiangsu, People’s Republic of China*These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Bo Yang; Fu-Zheng ZhangDepartment of Radiation Oncology, Affiliated Hospital of Jiangnan University, 200 Huihe Road, Wuxi 214062, People’s Republic of ChinaTel +86 510 8868 3246; +86 510 8868 2111Fax +86 510 8586 0321Email wuxiyangbo@163.com; wxsyzfz@163.comObjective: To evaluate the impact of systematic nutrition management (SNM) on nutritional status, treatment-related toxicity, quality of life (QoL), response rates, and survival in patients with locally advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma (LA-NPC) treated by radiotherapy (RT).Methods: In this retrospective study, 56 patients with LA-NPC were selected as nutrition management group (NG) for SNM during RT till 1 month later. Another 56 patients with LA-NPC receiving RT without SNM as control group (CG) were identified from the hospital database and matched pairs with NG patients according to age, gender, stage, and body mass index (BMI) prior to RT.Results: At 1 month after RT, the percentage of malnourished patients with BMI 0.05) for the 2-year progression-free survival and overall survival (84.2% versus 79.5% and 94.7% versus 92.3%, respectively.).Conclusion: SNM for LA-NPC patients treated by RT resulted in better nutritional status, reduced treatment-related toxicity and improved QoL.Keywords: nasopharyngeal carcinoma, radiotherapy, nutrition management, clinical outcome