Background Oncology patients are susceptible to malnutrition and this is a risk factor for morbidity and mortality.

Purpose To evaluate nutritional status in patients treated with oral chemotherapy in a tertiary hospital.

Material and methods Preliminary study including all patients treated with oral antineoplastic drugs cited in the outpatient pharmaceutical care consultation during May 2015. Patients treated for less than 3 months were excluded. The variables collected were: age, sex, neoplasia, drug used, height, current weight and weight 3 months ago. We used the Malnutrition Universal Screening Tool (MUST), a simple methodology to identify adults at risk of malnutrition. Data were obtained from interview and clinical history. All patients provided written informed consent.

Results We interviewed 30 patients (mean age 62.37 ± 12.19 years and 50.0% male) with different cancer types (6 colon, 4 breast, 4 prostate, 3 lung, 3 hepatocarcinoma, 3 gastric, 2 lymphoma, 1 pancreatic, 1 sarcoma, 1 glioma, 1 cholangiocarcinoma and 1 kidney) and different oral antineoplastic drugs (10 capecitabine, 2 sorafenib, 2 pazopanib, 2 everolimus, 2 abiraterone, 2 imatinib, 2 topotecan, 1 temozolomide, 1 lenalidomide, 1 erlotinib, 1 lapatinib, 1 bexarotene, 1 enzalutamide, 1 ceritinib and 1 capecitabine/lapatinib).

The result of the MUST screening was 2.67 ± 0.83 points. Body mass index at the time of the consultation was 26.23 ± 4.30 kg/m² and the previous one (3 months before) was 27.40 ± 4.23 kg/m²(30.0% normal weight, 40.0% overweight, 26.7% obesity class I and 3.3% obesity class II). 18 patients (60.0%) lost weight, with a mean loss of 7.7 ± 4.1%. The weight loss was less than 5% in 5 patients (2 with normal weight and 3 overweight), between 5% and 10% in 8 patients (2 with normal weight, 4 overweight, 1 with obesity class I and 1 with obesity class II) and more than 10% in 5 patients (2 overweight and 3 with obesity class I). In the remaining patients weight was maintained or slightly increased.

Conclusion Patients treated with oral chemotherapy are a group of risk of malnutrition. More than half of the patients lost weight during treatment, even in patients with normal weight.

Prospective studies should be conducted to confirm these results. It is important to know the nutritional impact using oral chemotherapy for preventing and managing malnutrition.

References and/or Acknowledgements

1. Alonso Castellanos S, et al. Associated metabolic and nutritional side effects to biological cancer therapy. Nutr Hosp 2014;29:259-68

References and/or AcknowledgementsNo conflict of interest.