[Small intestinal absorption in cancer patients--basis for enteral feeding therapy in oncology]

A deteriorating nutritional condition combined with the loss of body mass is one of the most noticeable symptoms of cancer. In order to answer the question to what extent absorption disorders in the small intestine are responsible for the malnutrition which develops, we studied 54 oncologic patients using modified D-xylose absorption tests. After the oral and intravenous administration of 10 g D-xylose at different times, the degree of absorption dependent on time was determined on the basis of a biophysical model. When accompanied by general nonspecific tumor symptoms, the frequency of absorption restrictions was increased. An established relation was found between the extent of small intestinal absorption, on the one hand, and the degree of spreading (staging) and the degree of histological differentiation of the carcinoma, on the other hand. Enteral absorption disorders represent a partial cause for the development of malnutrition in cancer patients and must be viewed as a result of a metabolic situation which is distinctly catabolic.