Impact of nutritional counseling for Head and Neck Cancer patients undergoing radiochemotherapy: a pilot prospective study

Abstract

Abstract PurposeExpected weight loss and discontinuation of the planned therapeutic program plays a key role in oncological care and treatment effectiveness in Head-Neck Cancer (HNC) patients.We aimed to determine the impact of dietary counselling in a prospective cohort of patients with HNC undergoing radio-chemotherapy. MethodsThis single-centre prospective study was conducted, between November 2020 and March 2021, on 17 consecutive patients treated with radio-chemotherapy or radiotherapy for HNC. At baseline, nutrition risk assessment was performed using the Malnutrition Universal Screening Tool (MUST). Nutritional outcome and morbidity, during and 1 month after the end of treatment, were evaluated. ResultsThe most commonly observed issues at baseline were inadequate oral intake and involuntary weight loss, with inadequate energy intake as the most frequent cause (38%). At mid-treatment (T1), mean body weight showed a reduction from baseline, with a slight increase at the end of therapy. Overall, we observed body weight stability during the treatment period and a recovery from the observed minimum weight (mean 74.3 vs 74.4 kg, min 59 vs 57.3 kg). ConclusionOur data suggest that nutritional counseling should be adopted to increase dietary intake and to prevent therapy-associated weight loss and treatment adherence reduction.