No abstract

Introduction: Head and neck cancer (HNC) patients constitute a recognized risk group for malnutrition due to several factors, and may require enteral nutritional therapy (ENT). This study evaluated alterations in nutritional status and weight loss in patients with HNC using ENT followed at the Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP) oncology outpatient clinic. Methods: This was a retrospective study conducted through database analysis, collected from January to December of 2018 at an UNIFESP oncology outpatient clinic. We selected all patients with HNC in use of ENT at some moment of the treatment during 2018. Weight and height were considered to calculate body mass index (BMI) and to classify nutritional status and the classification of weight loss for evaluation. Results: The sample consisted of 24 patients, 71% were elderly and 29% adults and 75% were men. At the first consultation in 2018, 6 (25%) patients were at normal weight and 15 (63%) had some degree of malnutrition (underweight). A total of 11 (46%) patients reported previous weight loss. After the analysis it was found that 54% of patients had weight loss in the period, however, only 1 patient had severe weight loss. Changes in BMI were observed in all patients, but in 88% of the cases there was no change in BMI classification. Conclusion: Although patients were on ENT, many had weight loss, which may be a result of decreased food intake, metabolic abnormalities caused by tumor activity, or a consequence of treatment-related symptoms. Most of the weight losses were not significant, and most patients had increased body weight, which may have been result of ENT use, which is responsible for delayed weight loss in cancer patients.

Introduction: In oncology patients, the risk of malnutrition is constant due to several factors, such as negative energy balance and losses of musculoskeletal mass. Cancer treatments often results in several side effects that directly affect food intake, representing nutritional risk. As a strategy, industrialized supplements are prescribed, however, due to the nausea and dysgeusia commonly found in these patients, the tendency is to accept versions flavorless. A blind sensory evaluation was performed using culinary preparations increased with flavorless powdered industrial supplements. Methods: Three recipes were produced in an UNIFESP Food Technology Laboratory, a cornmeal cake, a simple omelet and an avocado cream. Each recipe was repeated 4 times, in 3, added supplement of 3 different brands and one without addition. The preparations were arranged in similar containers identified by numbers and assessors were asked to taste the food by giving grades 1 through 5 for appearance, taste, aroma and texture. The assessors served themselves randomly, not knowing which preparations contained the supplement or which brand they belonged to and filled out the sensory evaluation form. Results: Fourteen individuals were submitted to the sensorial test. It was noted that sweet supplemented preparations, such as cornmeal cake and avocado cream, were better accepted, with average approval of 86% and 76.3%, respectively, while omelet obtained 51.6%. It was also found that all individuals were able to notice the presence of supplement in the omelet and avocado cream, and less frequently in cornmeal cake. Conclusion: The brand’s orientation is not to submit supplements to high temperatures, because of the risk of nutritional loss, however, in patient’s reports, the insertion of supplement in preparations is noticeable, the proposal would be an alternative use to enrich the daily preparations.