Impact of weight loss on cancer patients’ quality of life at the beginning of the chemotherapy

Purpose Among the prognostic factors relevant to the condition of oncological patients, nutritional status (NS) has the greatest single impact on quality of life (QL). The goals of our study were to evaluate the influence of NS, weight loss (WL), and the presence of cachexia, prior to the initiation...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Supportive care in cancer 2021-02, Vol.29 (2), p.627-634
Main Authors: Álvaro Sanz, Elena, Abilés, Jimena, Garrido Siles, Margarita, Pérez Ruíz, Elísabeth, Alcaide García, Julia, Rueda Domínguez, Antonio
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Breast cancer
Breast Neoplasms - drug therapy
Breast Neoplasms - metabolism
Cachexia - metabolism
Cancer
Cancer patients
Cancer therapies
Care and treatment
Chemotherapy
Female
Humans
Male
Malnutrition
Medicine
Medicine & Public Health
Middle Aged
Neoplasms - drug therapy
Neoplasms - metabolism
Nursing
Nursing Research
Nutrition
Nutrition Assessment
Nutritional Status
Oncology
Oncology, Experimental
Original Article
Pain Medicine
Patients
Product/Service Evaluations
Prognosis
Quality of Life
Rehabilitation Medicine
Surveys and Questionnaires
Weight loss
Weight Loss - physiology
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Summary:Purpose Among the prognostic factors relevant to the condition of oncological patients, nutritional status (NS) has the greatest single impact on quality of life (QL). The goals of our study were to evaluate the influence of NS, weight loss (WL), and the presence of cachexia, prior to the initiation of chemotherapy, on the patient’s QL. Methods Adult patients (aged ≥ 18 years) diagnosed with solid tumours for whom chemotherapy was started between April 2016 and June 2017 were eligible for inclusion in the study. They were asked to complete a QL questionnaire (Functional Assessment of Cancer Treatment (FACT-G)) at the beginning. The presence or absence of cachexia was evaluated at the outset, following the definition proposed by Fearon and nutritional assessment by the Patient-Generated Subjective Global Assessment (PG-SGA) scale. Results A total of 177 patients completed the FACT-G, the 60% receiving curative therapy. At the start of the treatment, 58.2% of patients had experienced WL, with an average of 4.4 ± 7.4%, and 19% were at risk of malnutrition. Patient who presented cachexia at diagnosis, were treated with palliative intention, had a Nutriscore ≥ 5 points or presented malnutrition in accordance with PG-SGA had a poorer QL ( p  
ISSN:0941-4355
1433-7339
DOI:10.1007/s00520-020-05496-9