Da-Ping Jiang, Chang-Hua Zhang, Jin-Tao Zhu, Guang-Gai Xia, Zhen Xiang, Shi-Rong Cai, Yu-Long He
Objective: To assess the effect of nutritional support on nutrition and chemotherapy-related side effects in GI cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy.
Methods: Randomized clinical trials (RCT) on comparison of nutrition, immunity and chemotherapy-related side effects between the GI cancer patients with or without additional nutritional support were searched through PubMed, Scopus, CNKI and WANFANG databases. Qualified trials published from 1990 to 2014 were included in the study. Meta-analysis was used to compare nutrition, immunity and chemotherapy-related side effects between the two groups.
Results: Finally 17 RCTs with 955 patients were included in the study. Among them, 486 patients received chemotherapy plus nutritional support and 492 patients received chemotherapy only. The patients who received nutritional support had significant improvement in transferring (SMD =0.61, 95% CI: 0.40-0.82, P<0.05), IgG (SMD =0.65, 95% CI: 0.45-0.84, P<0.05) and IgA (SMD =0.62, 95% CI: 0.10-1.13, P>0.05). The incidences of side-effects related to chemotherapy including leukopenia (RR =0.57, 95% CI: 0.39-0.82, P<0.05), nausea and vomiting (RR =0.54, 95% CI: 0.40-0.72, P<0.05) and anorexia (RR =0.50, 95% CI: 0.30-0.83, P<0.05) were significantly decreased in the patients with nutritional support.
Conclusions: Nutritional intervention can improve nutritional status and immunity and decrease incidence of chemotherapy-related side-effects in GI cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy.
