Immunonutrition In Cancer Patients Research Articles

The efficacy of immunonutrition in improving tolerance to chemoradiotherapy in patients with head and neck cancer, receiving nutritional counseling: study protocol of a randomized, open-label, parallel group, bicentric pilot study.

Background:Nutritional support, including nutritional counseling and oral nutritional supplements (ONSs), has been recommended at the earliest opportunity in head and neck (H&N) cancer patients. The limited available evidence on the efficacy of immunonutrition during chemoradiotherapy (CT-RT) in H&N cancer patients is positive with regard to some secondary endpoints, but is still scanty, particularly with regard to toxicity and treatment tolerance. We hypothesize that early systematic provision of ONSs with a high-protein–high-calorie mixture containing immunonutrients (Impact) compared to standard high-calorie–high-protein nutritional blends, in addition to nutritional counseling, may be beneficial to patients with H&N cancer during CT-RT. Hence, we designed the present study to evaluate the efficacy, in terms of treatment tolerance, toxicity and response, body weight, body composition, protein-calorie intake, quality of life (QoL), fatigue, muscle strength and immunological profile of the early systematic provision of ONSs enriched in immunonutrients compared to isonitrogenous standard blends, in H&N cancer patients undergoing CT-RT.Methods:This is a pragmatic, bicentric, randomized (1:1), parallel-group, open label, controlled, pilot clinical trial.Discussion:Many efforts are still to be taken to improve the efficacy of nutritional support in oncology. Immunonutrition represents a promising approach also in H&N cancer patients, but the evidence on its efficacy in improving clinical outcomes during CT-RT is still inconclusive. The present pilot study, which guarantees the early provision of nutritional assessment and support to all the enrolled patients in accordance with the recent guidelines and recommendations, could represent one of the first proofs of the clinical effectiveness of early oral immunonutrition in cancer patients undergoing CT-RT and could stimulate further large randomized trials, potentially resulting in the improvement of supportive care quality.Trial registration:This study is registered on ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT04611113.

The role of immunonutritional support in cancer treatment: Currentevidence.

The significant role of the immune system in cancer treatment has given rise to an emerging field of study within oncology, and one that is attracting increasing attention from researchers. Immunotherapy has demonstrated that the immune system is crucial in the fight against cancer. This challenge has led researchers to analyze whether the immune influencing capacity of immunonutrition may aid in improving immune status, modulate the acquired immune response, decrease the treatment toxicity and improve patient outcomes. Immunonutrition, new developed formulas has been demonstrated to improve outcome in surgical patients. This improvement is related to the modulation of the inflammatory response in the peri-operative period. The aim of this review is to analyze current evidence on the benefit of immunonutrition in patients undergoing pro-inflammatory processes in cancer, such as receiving chemotherapy or radiation treatment. With this aim, authors have analyzed the problem studying different aspects: the role of the immune system in cancer treatment, current evidence regarding immunonutrition in perioperative period, current evidence regarding immunonutrition in cancer patients and the relation between immunity and radiotherapy. The conclusions of this review confirm that immunonutrition formulas could modulate inflammatory and immune response in cancer patients. This effect decreases acute toxicity, although the pathways and the measure of this immune response are unclear. Immunonutrition is an emerging field in oncology, and further research is needed.

COST-EFFECTIVENESS OF PERIOPERATIVE IMMUNONUTRITION IN GASTROINTESTINAL ONCOLOGIC SURGERY: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW.

ABSTRACTIntroduction: Costs, length of hospital staying and morbidity are frequently and significantly increased as a result of infections and other complications following surgical procedure for gastrointestinal tract cancer. Recently, improving host defence mechanisms have become a target of interest. Immunonutrition aims at improving immunity, most likely providing key nutrients to maintain T-lymphocyte and other host defence. Aim : To evaluate the immunonutrition in cancer patients who are operated by digestive diseases and assess the cost-effectiveness of this supplementation. Methods:This study consisted of a systematic review of the literature based on reference analyses retrieved from current databases such as PubMed, Lilacs and SciELO. The search strategy was defined by terms related to immunonutrition [immunonutrition, arginine, omega-3 and nucleotides] in combination with [costs, cost-effective and cost-effectiveness] as well as [gastrointestinal cancer surgery, oesophageal, gastric or pancreatic surgery] in English, Portuguese or Spanish language. For cost analyses, currencies used in the manuscripts were all converted to American dollars (US$) in order to uniform and facilitate comparison. Six prospective randomized studies were included in this review. Conclusion:The cost-effectiveness was positive in most of studies, demonstrating that this diet can significantly reduce hospital costs in the North hemisphere. However, similar studies needed to be carried to determine such results among us.

Preoperative enteral immunonutrition in cancer patients undergoing major abdominal surgery: Results of a meta-analysis.

e14005 Background: Perioperative enteral immunonutrition is thought to reduce the acute phase response and postoperative morbidity in patients undergoing major abdominal surgery. This meta analysis...