Body Composition Early Identifies Cancer Patients With Radiotherapy at Risk for Malnutrition

The side effects of radiotherapy (RT) and the occurrence of comorbidity often result in appetite loss in patients, which leads to serious nutritional problems, significantly affecting the patients' treatment results and disease prognosis.

We aimed to investigate changes in the body composition of patients with cancer from the time they received RT to three months after completion of RT.

A total of 101 cancer patients who received RT, which included head or neck cancer, chest or breast cancer, and abdominal or pelvic cancer patients, were recruited. A longitudinal study design was adopted, in which the body composition analyzer In Body3.0 was used to obtain patient data at six different time points. The data were analyzed through generalized estimating equation.

All patients with cancer had the lowest body mass index at the end of RT. For head or neck cancer patients, their total body water and muscle mass decreased significantly in the fourth week of RT and at the end of RT. For chest or breast cancer patients, their body fat mass changed significantly in the second and fourth weeks of RT (β = -0.57, P = 0.0233; β = -3.23, P = 0.0254). For abdominal or pelvic cancer patients, their total body weight and muscle mass decreased significantly in the second week of RT and at the end of RT (β = -1.07, P = 0.0248; β = -5.13, P = 0.0017; β = -1.37, P = 0.0245; β = -6.50, P = 0.0016); their body fat mass increased significantly in the third month after RT (β = 4.61, P = 0.0072).

Body composition analysis can be used to promptly and effectively monitor changes in the nutritional status of patients with cancer during the cancer treatment period; changes in the body composition at different repetitions differ between patients with dissimilar cancers.