Prevalence of Malnutrition Risk in Patients with Oncological Pathology who Attend their First Nutritional Medical Control

Abstract

Nutritional alterations are frequent in patients with active oncological pathology. The prevalence of malnutrition in this group is 15-20% at the time of diagnosis and 80-90% in patients with advanced disease. The different tumors show nutritional risks according to their location, their degree of involvement of the digestive tract and the type of cancer treatment established. It is a descriptive study of the prevalence of global risk of malnutrition. We included 898 patients with oncological pathology who attended to Nutrition and Diabetes Department of Maria Curie Municipal Oncology Hospital of Buenos Aires between June 2019 and June 2020. The objective was to analyze the prevalence of global risk of malnutrition through MUST in patients who attend their first nutritional medical control. An analysis of the score was carried out ina group of patients with high global risk of malnutrition, observing that 27.79% obtained the highest evaluation of score 4. 44% of the patients had breast cancer, followed by cervix, ovary and uterus cancer with 13% and then cancer of the mouth, oral/tongue in 12%. Malnutrition is a frequent complication in cancer patients and it is significantly associated with an increasement in morbidity/mortality according to some bibliography. The nutritional assessment of patient with cancer should begin at the time of diagnosis in order to initiate nutritional intervention early, reducing associated complications and improving the patient’s quality of life.