CACHEXIA AND MALNUTRITION IN CANCER PATIENTS: INFLAMMATION INDEXES EVALUATION AND NUTRITIONAL INTERVENTION

Cancer patients (CP) typically experiment cachexia and malnutrition due to cancer type and systemic inflammation, that may cause greater treatment toxicities, impacting on prognosis, response to treatment, hospitalization and quality of life. We retrospectively analyzed consecutive data of 190 CP treated from February 2017 to July 2018 at the Anesthesia and Intensive Care Unit of National Cancer Institute, Aviano. At nutritional assessment we evaluated the rate of weight loss (WL) compared to self-reported usual weight (UW) and at 6 and 1 months before the visit, performed by an expert physician and a certified dietitian. We explored the association of WL≥10% with inflammation biomarkers, total protein, albumin, diagnosis and nutritional intervention through chi-squared or Kruskal-Wallis test, as statistically appropriate (Tab.2). Patients’ characteristics were summarized through descriptive analysis (Tab.1). Noteworthy 48% of CP was ≥65 years old, 20% had BMI Prevention and treatment of cachexia still remain a critical need in CP. Therefore, integrating nutritional supportive care to oncologic treatments is crucial.