Role of Nutritional Support in Head and Neck Cancer Patients

Malnutrition could occur in patients with head and neck cancer due to the disease itself and the side effects of treatment. The consequences of malnutrition lead to the discontinuity of treatment and the deterioration of quality of life and prognosis. Nowadays, there are available tools for nutrition screening and assessment which could early identify the patient at risk malnutrition and give them the prompt nutritional interventions. Nutritional anagements, including nutrition counseling, modification of the diet, the supplement of oral nutritional supplement, enteral nutrition, and parenteral nutrition, have roles from the beginning to the end of head and neck cancer treatment and the proper nutritional interventions were associated with the better results. Nutrition interventions were an essential part in prevention and treatment of the postoperative complications such as chyle leakage and pharyngocutaneous fistula. The research involving in immunonutrients showed the efficacy in improvement of the clinical outcome of patients undergoing treatment for head and neck cancer. Therefore, appropriate nutrition interventions were important and required the multidisciplinary team approach.