A systematic review on influencing factors of nutritional status in patients with head and neck cancer

Abstract

Objective To systematically review the influencing factors of nutritional status in patients with head and neck cancer (HNC) . Methods Researches on influencing factors of nutritional status in HNC patients were retrieved in databases, such as PubMed, EBSCO, Web of Science, CNKI, WanFang Data and Chinese Biological Medicine (CBM) by computer from January 2010 to July 2018. Quality assessment, content extract and analysis was carried out for literatures met inclusive criteria. Results Finally, a total of 19 researches were included.Qualitative analysis and simple correlation showed that those researches involved 47 factors, the influencing factors of nutritional status included the reduced ingestion, high levels of weight and body mass index (BMI) before treatment, low levels of hemoglobin and serum albumin, swallowing problem, thirst, sense problem, constipation and oral mucositis; 23 factors of them were with varying degrees of influence, such as the ages, males, education levels and drinking. Multivariate analysis showed that those researches involved 35 factors; the influencing factors of nutritional status of HNC patients included the radiotherapy types/technology and swallowing problem; 17 factors of them were with varying degrees of influence, such as the ages, habitation and smoking. In simple correlation and multivariate analysis, swallowing problem was the only factor with statistical differences in two kinds of analysis; the ages, tumor stage, tumor location/kinds of disease, grades of T and N, complications after radiotherapy and adverse reactions were only with statistical differences in simple correlation but without statistical differences in multivariate analysis. Conclusions Nutritional status of HNC patients is influenced by many factors and influence of most factors is uncertain with great individual differences. Influencing factors of nutritional status of HNC patients and mechanisms need to be explored and expounded respectively by further studies, especially pay attention to swallowing problem of HNC patients. Key words: Head and neck neoplasms; Nutrition; Influencing factors; Systematic review