Apetite e sintomas de impacto nutricional de mulheres com câncer ginecológico

Changes in appetite are common and worrying in cancer patients and significantly impact nutritional status. This study aimed to verify the relationship among appetite/symptoms and the sociodemographic, clinical and nutritional status of women diagnosed with gynecological cancer without antineoplastic treatment treated at Barretos Cancer Hospital. Methods: This is a cross-sectional study with a non-probabilistic sample design, conducted between January and September 2017. This study comprised sociodemographic, clinical, nutritional status and appetite/ symptoms. Nutritional assessment was performed using the body mass index (BMI) and the PatientGenerated Subjective Global Assessment (PG-SGA). To assess appetite and symptoms, the Cancer Appetite and Symptom Questionnaire (CASQ) instrument was used. For associations of interest, the chi-square test was used. A significance level of 5% was adopted. Results: 171 women with a mean age of 52.32 ± 14.95 years participated, most of them diagnosed with cervical cancer (56.6%). Although the predominance in this study is women with moderate appetite/symptom impairment, it was not related to sociodemographic and clinical variables, nor was it associatedwith nutritional status assessed by BMI. However, a significant association was found between appetite/symptoms and nutritional status assessed by PG-SGA (p = 0.033). Conclusion: Appetite impairment and presence of symptoms were not related to the sociodemographic and clinical variables studied in women diagnosed with treatment-naive gynecological cancer. Significant association was found between CASQ and nutritional status assessed by PG-SGA.