Nutritional Prognosis of Patients Submitted to Radiotherapy and Its Implications in Treatment

Abstract

Oncological patients show intense catabolic activity, as well as a susceptibility to higher nutritional risk and clinical complications. Thus, tools are used for monitoring prognosis. Our objective was to analyze the nutrition prognosis of patients who underwent radiotherapy, correlating it with outcomes and complications. We performed a retrospective transversal study based on secondary data from hospital records of patients who started radiotherapy between July 2022 and July 2023. We established Prognostic Scores through a combination of Prognostic Nutritional Index (PNI) and a Subjective Global Assessment (SGA), assessed at the beginning and end of treatment. Score 3 patients, with PNI ≤ 45.56 and an SGA outcome of malnutrition, initially presented a higher occurrence of odynophagia, later also being indicative of reduced diet volume, treatment interruption, and dysphagia. SGA alone showed sensitivity to altered diet volume, dysphagia, and xerostomia in the second assessment. Besides this, PNI ≤ 45.56 also indicated the use of alternative feeding routes, treatment interruption, and hospital discharge with more complications. We conclude that the scores could be used to indicate complications; however, further studies on combined biomarkers are necessary.