[Malnutrition in cancer patients]

Malnutrition is common in cancer patients. Many factors contribute to weight loss: some of them can be related to diminished dietary intake, while others are more associated with metabolic changes induced by systemic inflammatory responses. This is why at a specific phase during the course of development, some cancers will benefit from nutritional support, while in theory, and others will benefit from anti-inflammatory treatment. Parenteral nutrition is indicated for severe malnourished surgical patients and for allogenic stem cell transplant patients. Tube feeding (enteral nutrition) should be considered for patients with a functional gut who are unable to ingest sufficient nutrients orally, for example head and neck cancer patients. The value of dietary counselling and oral nutritional support has not been proven in patients undergoing chemotherapy, which is why it is so difficult to propose recommendations. Some arguments seem to favour parenteral nutrition for patients with bowel obstruction suffering from advanced-stage incurable cancer. As the results of studies following omega-3 fatty acid-enriched oral nutritional support in palliative care patients are inconsistent, these products cannot be recommended.