RISK OF MALNUTRITION AT ADMISSION OF CANCER PATIENTS. STUDY OF CASES TREATED IN ONE YEAR

Background and objectives: Because of the characteristics of the disease and the treatments to which they are subjected, patients diagnosed with cancer (CA) have a high risk of malnutrition. The risk could vary according to the type of tumor, location and tumor stage. Therefore, we studied all patients admitted to the National Cancer Institute (INCAN) during 2016 and determined the risk of malnutrition at the time of admission based on the location of the cancer. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study with data obtained from January to December 2016 at INCAN. We attended 912 patients with different types of CA. We analyzed demographic and clinical data and the nutritional status was determined by the screening method proposed by Gomez et al (2010). Patients with location of CA abdominal/peritoneal, head/neck, gastric, colon/rectum/anus, digestive organs annex, and lung were considered in risk of malnutrition. Chi Square and Odds Ratios test was used to determine the risk of malnutrition based on the CA location. Results: The final sample was 877 patients with CA. The average age was 55±14years (95%CI 54-56years), 65.5% were woman. The location most frequent of CA were gynecological (26.9%), head/neck (15.5%) y colon/rectum/anus (15.2%). In woman prevailed CA Gynecological type, breast and head/neck 38.7%, 21.4% y 12.5%, respectively and in man colon/rectum/anus (24.8%), head/neck (21.1%) y male reproductive system (13.2%). According to the nutritional evaluation, 38.9% presented malnutrition and 42.2% of patients have risk of malnutrition according by location of CA. Patients with Gastric, Abdominal/Peritoneal and Pulmonary CA present a higher frequency of malnutrition, while urinal, breast and skin CA patients present malnutrition in less frequent. 52.2% (n = 178) of the malnourished were patients with risk by CA localization, while 64.2% of the non-malnourished did not present risk by CA localization. The patients with head/neck, digestive (liver, pancreas, gastric, colon, rectum, anus), Abdominal/Peritoneal and Pulmonary CA have 1.957 more likely to present malnutrition (p