[Relationship between acute radiotoxicity and nutritional status of patients with head and neck cancer]

Abstract

Objective: To investigate the relationship between nutritional status and acute radiotoxicity of patients with head and neck cancer.

Methods: Nutritional status and acute radiotoxicities of 130 head and neck cancer patients were prospectively surveyed during the 4th week of radiotherapy. Relationships between nutritional status and acute radiotoxicities were analyzed by canonical correlation.

Results: The first canonical correlation coefficient was 0.653, statistically significant, which showed that some negative relationships were found between nutritional status (such as serum prealbumin, transferring, lymphocytes, lymphocyte percentage) and acute radiotoxicities (such as dry mouth, throat/sore throat, fatigue, radiation dermatitis) of head and neck cancer patients.

Conclusion: When the detection value of serum prealbumin, transferrin, lymphocytes, lymphocyte percentage was below the normal, the appropriate nutritional support would be given to improve immunity and to relieve the acute radiotoxicitoes.