Precise nutritional diagnosis in digestive system malignancies based on blood nutrients, inflammatory makers,...

Area of Science:

• Oncology
• Nutritional Science
• Metabolomics

Background:

• Malnutrition significantly worsens cancer patient outcomes, creating a cycle with inflammation and gut dysfunction.
• Standard nutritional therapy often proves insufficient for these complex cases.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore precision nutrition diagnosis in cancer patients.
• To identify key indicators combining plasma nutrients, inflammatory markers, intestinal function, and body composition.

Main Methods:

• Analyzed plasma metabolomics, inflammatory markers, and intestinal function indicators in 140 digestive system cancer patients.
• Utilized Ultra-High Performance Liquid Chromatography-Tandem Mass Spectrometry and whole genome sequencing for gut microbiota analysis.
• Compared 87 severely malnourished patients (PG-SGA ≥ 9) with 53 well-nourished controls (PG-SGA ≤3).

Main Results:

• Identified 129 differential plasma nutrients, noting significant reductions in l-tryptophan, uridine, vitamin A, and pyrocatechol sulfate in malnourished patients.
• Observed elevated inflammatory markers (e.g., IL-6) and d-lactate, alongside gut microbiota abnormalities and lower BMI in the severely malnourished group.
• Developed a precision nutrition diagnostic model using six key markers (l-tryptophan, uridine, vitamin A, catechol sulfate, IL-6, BMI) with high accuracy (AUC 0.979).

Conclusions:

• Severe malnutrition in cancer patients is linked to distinct blood nutrient, inflammatory, and intestinal function profiles.
• Integrating these multi-faceted indicators enables precise nutritional diagnosis.
• This approach can guide tailored nutritional interventions to improve clinical outcomes.