[Underutilisation of enteral nutrition in medical oncology compared to recommendations]

Although the indications and the efficacy of the enteral nutrition are no longer questionable anymore, it is still underused. The French Société de nutrition clinique et métabolique, in collaboration with the NACRe activity issued recommendations in 2012, as far as the nutritional care is concerned for all the adult patients in the oncology field "Nutrition for the adult patients with cancer". This guide tends to recommend the setting of nutritional supports, especially some artificial nutrition as enteral and parenteral nutrition. The ADHENUTE research's first goal is to give a description of the respect of those recommendations within a Cancer Center, in the medical oncology department and is also willing to understand the reasons of the reluctance towards this type of nutritional support. Nutritional management was compared to the taking of the cares given to twenty hospitalized patients in the medical oncology department in our Cancer Center. One hundred and eighty-nine of the records had all the necessary informations for this type of cares and their setting. Among them, seventy-two patients required the setting of an enteral nutrition. The fact that only twenty-two patients actually got this form of nutrition does confirm the hypothesis of a clear underuse of this nutritional care.