Nutrition in advanced cancer: anorexia as an outcome variable and target of therapy.

The endpoints used as outcome variables in clinical cancer treatment trials, including nutrition intervention studies, should contain items that are meaningful to the patient. Variables to consider are appetite, food intake, physical performance, psychological and social functioning, response to cancer therapies, survival time, nutrition status, associated morbidity, and costs. Ideally, the design and conduct of nutrition trials should be carried out by a multidisciplinary team comprising medical oncologists, physician specialists in nutrition, dietitians, and social scientists. Anorexia has not been a focus of nutrition support trials in the past partly because of the lack of effective strategies to reverse it. Anorexia is one important cause of cancer starvation, and it also causes patient discomfort. This paper describes outcome variables that include patient derived subjective factors such as anorexia, and outlines new strategies to reverse anorexia. Pharmacologic strategies tested to reverse anorexia include corticosteroids, anabolic steroids, cyproheptadine, hydrazine sulfate, cannabinoids, and megestrol acetate. Of these, only the latter has been consistently well tolerated and effective, with significant improvements in appetite and food intake demonstrated in large-scale, randomized, controlled trials involving more than 600 cancer patients. Dose-response studies have demonstrated increasing efficacy with increasing doses of megestrol acetate from 160 to 800 mg/day. Doses in excess of 800 mg/day are not currently recommended. The mechanisms of action of megestrol acetate involve both behavioral and metabolic effects, and its impact on energy expenditure, appetite, body composition, endocrine function, and lipid metabolism is the subject of ongoing research.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Assessment and maintenance of nutrition in older cancer patients.

Variables that the clinician can assess to determine the nutritional status of cancer patients include percent and rate of weight loss from usual body weight, current weight compared to calculated ideal body weight, and levels of appetite and food intake. Our studies show that two-thirds of patients with advanced cancer over the age of 65 have had some degree of weight loss, and that more than half are underweight, have loss of appetite, or complain of a decrease in food intake. Ongoing support and education, food supplementation, and attention to activity level may all contribute to preserve the patient's nutritional status and quality of life. Severe, persistent anorexia that does not respond to dietary counseling can be reversed with megestrol acetate. Enteral and parenteral nutrition have specific indications but should not be routinely used in anorectic patients.

Clinical aspects of nutrition in advanced cancer.

Nutritional assessments of our patients with disseminated malignancies have revealed that the incidences of reported anorexia, decreased food intake, and weight loss range between 49 and 64%. It is therefore essential that a planned approach to the nutritional needs of patients with advanced cancer be part of routine oncology care. Our first step is a clinical assessment of the patient's nutritional state and diet, and a determination of caloric and nutrient needs. The potential tools available to the oncologist in the management of the undernourished cancer patient are many and include dietary counseling, food supplements (which contain vitamins and other micronutrients), stimulation of appetite, enteral nutrition, total parenteral nutrition, or a combination of these. The dietitian can be an invaluable component of the cancer care team, both in the inpatient and outpatient settings. An understanding of the role of each intervention will enable the physician to use available resources rationally and efficiently.