ABSTRACT
Objective:To investigate the effects of enteral nutrition on the incidence of treatment complications, results from nutritional indexes and proportions of immune cell subsets in elderly patients with esophageal carcinoma during concurrent chemoradiotherapy.Methods:From January 1, 2020 to December 31, 2020, 108 elderly patients(≥60 years)undergone concurrent chemoradiotherapy for esophageal carcinoma at Quanzhou First Hospital and eligible for inclusion were enrolled in the case-control study.They were randomly divided into the study group(enteral nutrition group)and the control group(normal diet group), with 54 cases in each group.The incidence of complications, results from nutritional indexes and immune cell subsets of the two groups were analyzed according to data type.Results:The incidence of bone marrow suppression(Grade Ⅰ-Ⅱ)in the study group(37.0%)was significantly lower than that in the control group(63.0%)( χ2=7.259, P<0.01). The incidence of bone marrow suppression(Grade Ⅲ-Ⅳ)in the study group(11.1%)was significantly lower than that in the control group(27.8%)( χ2=4.788, P<0.05). The levels of hemoglobin, total serum protein and albumin were(121.36±11.63)g/L, (73.78±7.79)g/L and(40.95±3.52)g/L in the study group and(106.45±10.85)g/L, (63.12±8.35)g/L and(35.54±4.12)g/L in the control group, respectively, after 4 weeks of radiotherapy and chemotherapy( P<0.05). The proportions of CD3+ and CD4+ were(64.15±5.84)% and(48.64±4.28)% in the study group and(59.25±6.27)% and(45.27±4.52)% in the control group, respectively, after 4 weeks of radiotherapy and chemotherapy( P<0.05). The proportion of CD8+ was(26.93±3.63)% in the study group and(30.35±3.36)% in the control group after 4 weeks of radiotherapy and chemotherapy( P<0.05). Conclusions:During concurrent chemoradiotherapy for elderly patients with esophageal carcinoma, enteral nutrition with adjustment based on patient's food intake can reduce patients' nutritional risk and modulate the proportion of immune cell subsets, thus reducing the occurrence of bone marrow suppression.