[Adverse effects of parenteral nutrition in cancer patients: systematic review]

Malnutrition in hospitals is of great concern in patients with cancer. This malnutrition in cancer leads to higher risk of complications, and worse response to treatments and outcomes. Parenteral nutrition (PN) in cancer is controversial due to the heterogeneous results found in scientific literature. This is the reason why the evaluation of adverse events of PN, its incidence and severity, is crucial when prescribing PN in cancer patients. This evaluation of adverse events of PN is the aim of the present systematic review of the randomized clinical trials (RCT) written in any language found in several databases. From the 74 articles found in our search, only 13 RCT (18 different types of cancer) met the criteria to be selected for the systematic review. These RCT included 669 patients receiving central PN in whom 225 adverse events (33.63%) of PN were described, and 92 patients with peripheral PN, with 54 adverse events (58.70%). There were no adverse events in a control group of 47 patients receiving parenteral fluids. We conclude that scientific literature is very heterogeneous and evaluate complications of parenteral nutrition only as a secondary aim. We think necessary that further research do define complications of parenteral nutrition homogeneously and study them as a main objective.