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Nutritional support and quality of life in cancer patients undergoing palliative care
Author(s) -
PREVOST V.,
GRACH M.C.
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
european journal of cancer care
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.849
H-Index - 67
eISSN - 1365-2354
pISSN - 0961-5423
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2354.2012.01363.x
Subject(s) - medicine , palliative care , quality of life (healthcare) , context (archaeology) , parenteral nutrition , modalities , intensive care medicine , medline , enteral administration , intervention (counseling) , family medicine , nursing , paleontology , social science , sociology , law , biology , political science
PREVOST V. & GRACH M.‐C. (2012) European Journal of Cancer Care 21 , 581–590 Nutritional support and quality of life in cancer patients undergoing palliative care In palliative care, the nutrition provided has to be tailored to the patient's needs, enhancing patient comfort and quality of life (QoL). We conducted a literature search to review methods of measuring QoL, and modalities of nutritional intervention and their influence on QoL of cancer patients in palliative care. Original papers published in English were selected from PubMed database by using the search terms, palliative medicine, cancer, nutrition and quality of life. Specific tools that are particularly recommended to assess QoL in a palliative care setting are reviewed. The main goal in palliative care is to maintain oral nutrition by providing nutritional counselling. Enteral nutritional support showed inconsistent effects on survival and QoL. An evidence‐base for parenteral nutrition is still lacking. Ethical considerations concerning provision of food and hydration in end‐of‐life care are discussed. Nutritional status should be assessed early and regularly during treatment using appropriate tools. In the particularly acute context of palliative care, optimal patient management requires adequate education and counselling to patients and families. Meaningful interactions between the patient, caregivers and medical team would also increase the chance of resolving nutrition‐related issues and help to fulfil each patient's specific nutritional needs and thus improve the QoL.