Impact of nutrition management in patients with head and neck cancers treated with irradiation: is the nutritional intervention useful?

The head and neck tumors are most often associated with a precarious nutritional status. Radiotherapy increases the risk of denutrition because of its secondary effects on the secretory and sensorial mucous membranes. The purpose of our retrospectively study was to evaluate the interest of a precocious and regular nutritional therapy on the ability to maintain the nutritional status of the patient during the radiotherapy. The fifty-two patients included in the survey have been classified retrospectively in two different groups based on their observance to the nutritional therapy: group 1 "good observance", group 2 "bad observance". The 31 patients of group 1 have lost an average of 1.9 kg by the end of the irradiation, whereas the 21 patients of group 2 have lost an average of 6.1 kg (p