Effect of whole course nutrition support on the acute radiation response and treatment compliance of naso-pharyngeal carcinoma

CAO Yuandong; SUN Xinchen; TANG Xinyu; PEI Zhongling; TANG Yuanyuan; GE Xiaolin; YANG Yan; MU Qinxia; ZHANG Sheng

Abstract：Objective To explore the effect of whole course nutrition support on the response and treatment compliance of na-sopharyngeal carcinoma ( NPC) patients. Methods A total of 87 patients with NPC from January 2013 to December 2014 were en-rolled in this study, with 26 patients as observation group and 61 as control group. Oral nutritional preparations or nasal feeding were defined for full nutritional support during radiotherapy procedure in observation group. Intensity modulated radiotherapy was treated with 6MV X-ray. The prescription dose was 66-74 Gy/30-33 f and 66-70 Gy/30-33 f for nasopharynx and neck lymph node metastasis. Dur-ing radiotherapy, the quality of life ( KPS score) , the body weight and the acute response ( RTOG) were recorded, and the nutritional status was evaluated by using body mass index ( BMI) . Treatment compliance was evaluated at the 30 fraction of radiation. Results All the patients in observation group completed radiotherapy, but treatment disruption was found in 7 cases in control group, among whom 5 cases failed to complete radiotherapy. KPS score and nutritional status of observation group were better than those in control group at the 4th week and the end of radiotherapy ( P<0. 05) . The scores of radiodermatitis, mucositis, odynophagia and myelosuppres-sion were obviously lower in observation group compared with control group ( P<0. 05) , but the scores of dry mouth in the two groups had no difference(P>0. 05). The treatment compliance in observation group was 88. 5%(23/26), significantly better than 37. 7%(23/61) in control group (P<0. 05). Conclusion Total nutrition support can significantly reduce the acute radiation response of NPC, improve quality of life and treatment compliance of patients.