Nutritional management of patients with oesophageal cancer throughout the treatment trajectory: benchmarking against best practice.

Abstract

Oesophageal cancer (OC) impacts nutritional status and outcomes. This study aims to benchmark the current nutrition management of patients with OC against best practice recommendations, identify critical points in the treatment trajectory where nutritional status is compromised, service gaps and opportunities for improvement. A retrospective audit collected demographic, medical and nutritional data from medical records of patients who received curative treatment for OC at a tertiary referral hospital in Sydney, Australia. Thirty-seven patient records were audited over the time period. Twenty-nine patients underwent nutrition screening on admission to the service. Eighteen out of 25 patients receiving neoadjuvant radiation therapy, all patients during surgical admission, and only 19 patients at postsurgical discharge were seen by a dietitian. All patients received tube feeding post-operatively; however, initiation within 24h only occurred for 14 patients. Weight significantly declined over the course of treatment (p < 0.001), whilst malnutrition during surgical admission (p = 0.004) and postsurgical discharge (p = 0.038) were both associated with significantly higher unplanned readmissions. Best practice recommendations were met for aspects of the immediate post-operative period; however, service gaps remain during pre-operative and post-discharge care. Findings from this study indicate that nutritional care is inconsistent across different treatment stages, and malnutrition impacts negatively on unplanned readmission. Research is needed to address evidence-practice gaps, assess appropriateness of recommendations and provide evidence for models of care during multimodality treatments and across different services.