Current Insights in Nutrition Assessment and Intervention for Malnutrition or Muscle Loss in People with Lung Cancer: A Narrative Review

Abstract

Up to 70% of people with lung cancer may be affected by cancer-related malnutrition or muscle loss, depending on treatment modality and disease stage. This narrative review explores recent studies on malnutrition and muscle loss as well as nutritional and multimodal interventions to treat these conditions in the context of the changing treatment landscape in lung cancer. Various types of interventions, including individualized counseling, protein and other specific nutrient supplementation, as well as multimodal interventions to treat malnutrition and muscle loss, have been investigated. Overall, individualized dietary counseling, increasing protein intake, and supplementation with omega-3 (n-3) fatty acids appear to be beneficial for some, albeit varying, patient outcomes. Multimodal interventions, generally including a nutrition and exercise component, show promising results; however, the impact on patient outcomes is mixed. A key finding of this review is a lack of large, randomized trials to guide nutrition intervention specifically in people with lung cancer. Despite the high prevalence of malnutrition and muscle loss in people with lung cancer and the known adverse outcomes, current evidence for nutrition intervention is limited. A targeted effort is required to improve the quality of evidence for nutrition intervention in this population to provide support for clinicians to deliver effective nutrition care.

Keywords: lung cancer; malnutrition; multimodal; muscle loss; nutrition.

FIGURE 1

An overview of the tumor-related and treatment-related factors contributing to the development of muscle loss and malnutrition in people with lung cancer.