Premium
Invited Review: Nutrition Support in Patients With Cancer: What Do the Data Really Show?
Author(s) -
Klein Samuel,
Koretz Ronald L.
Publication year - 1994
Publication title -
nutrition in clinical practice
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.725
H-Index - 71
eISSN - 1941-2452
pISSN - 0884-5336
DOI - 10.1177/011542659400900391
Subject(s) - medicine , randomized controlled trial , intensive care medicine , clinical trial , disease , cancer , parenteral nutrition , medical nutrition therapy , population , prospective cohort study , environmental health
Although more than 70 prospective randomized controlled trials have evaluated the use of nutrition support in patients with cancer, the indications for nutrition therapy in this patient population remain controversial. We reviewed the published prospective randomized controlled trials that evaluated clinically important endpoints (morbidity, mortality, and duration of hospitalization). Many trials had serious shortcomings in study design that limit the ability to draw definitive conclusions from the data. In general, the data failed to demonstrate the clinical efficacy of providing nutrition support to most patients with cancer. Therefore, the indications for using nutrition therapy should be the same as those for patients with benign disease.