Abstract
(1) Background: Nutritional status can influence the quality of life (QoL) of cancer patients. (2) Methods: This subanalysis evaluated the impact of an oral oligomeric enteral nutrition (OEN) protocol on the QoL of patients with oncology treatment-related diarrhea (OTRD) in a multicenter, observational, prospective study (DIAPOENO study). QoL was assessed with the Nottingham Health Profile (NHP) at baseline and after eight weeks of OEN treatment. (3) In the overall population, all the NHP categories significantly improved after eight weeks of OEN treatment: energy levels (p < 0.001), pain (p < 0.001), emotional reactions (p < 0.001), sleep (p < 0.001), social isolation (p = 0.023), and physical abilities (p = 0.001). QoL improvement was higher in patients with improved or maintained nutritional status and in those with improved consistency of stools with the OEN protocol. However, QoL did not significantly improve in patients with worse nutritional status and with worse or maintained stool consistency with the OEN protocol. QoL improved regardless of disease severity. Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that weight change was significantly associated with improved QoL (OR 2.90–5.3), except for social isolation, in models unadjusted and adjusted to age, sex, oncology treatment, and stool consistency. (4) Conclusion: In this subanalysis, the OEN protocol was associated with improved QoL.
Highlights
Cancer patients frequently suffer from gastrointestinal symptoms that severely impair their nutritional status [1]
This study reports the subanalysis of quality of life (QoL) data from the DIAPOENO study: a multicenter, observational, prospective cohort study [20]
We reveal that the effectiveness of the oligomeric enteral nutrition (OEN) protocol translates into QoL improvement, with significant differences in all the Nottingham Health Profile (NHP) categories in the overall population
Summary
Cancer patients frequently suffer from gastrointestinal symptoms that severely impair their nutritional status [1]. Nutritional status can be further compromised by anticancer therapy side effects, including taste changes, nausea, constipation, and diarrhea [2]. Oncology treatment-related diarrhea (OTRD) is a common side effect [3], resulting in low performance, frequent hospital admissions, reduced survival, and impaired quality of life (QoL) [4]. QoL reflects people’s wellbeing by considering emotional, social, and physical aspects of life [6]. This multidimensional measure is key in oncology, given the impairment that cancer and oncology treatments promote in physical and psychological spheres of life [7]. The higher incidence of hospital admissions, longer hospital stays, and reduced tolerance to anticancer treatments associated with malnutrition and diarrhea result in poorer outcomes, reduced
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