Impact of nutritional status in the era of FOLFOX/FIRI-based chemotherapy

The nutritional status plays a pivotal role during anticancer therapy. This study analyzed whether nutritional status influences the outcomes in the era of FOLFOX/FIRI therapy. The patients were divided into two groups according to whether the nutritional status was well (serum albumin level ≥ 3.8 g/dL or a ≥ 1.0 g/dL increase as compared with the value before chemotherapy) or not before and 2 and 6 months after the start of chemotherapy. Chemotherapy-related adverse events (AE), treatment effect, and compliance were evaluated according to the nutritional status. The progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) were assessed based on the nutritional status at 6 months. Between 2010 and 2013, data on 108 consecutive patients were analyzed. At 2 months after chemotherapy, the hematotoxicic AE and the value of tumor markers did not differ significantly. The non-hematotoxic AE were less frequent in patients in the well-nourished group (grade 2, 15.9 vs. 38.5%, p