Nutritional Support of Cancer Patients without Oral Feeding: How to Select the Most Effective Technique?

GE Portuguese Journal of Gastroenterology
Gonçalo NunesPedro Pimentel-Nunes

Abstract

Digestive tumours are among the leading causes of morbidity and mortality. Many cancer patients cannot maintain oral feeding and develop malnutrition. The authors aim to: review the endoscopic, radiologic and surgical techniques for nutritional support in cancer patients; address the strategies for nutritional intervention according to the selected technique; and establish a decision-making algorithm to define the best approach in a specific tumour setting. This is a narrative non-systematic review based on an electronic search through the medical literature using PubMed and UpToDate. The impossibility of maintaining oral feeding is a major cause of malnutrition in head and neck (H&N) cancer, oesophageal tumours and malignant gastric outlet obstruction. Tube feeding, endoscopic stents and gastrojejunostomy are the three main nutritional options. Nasal tubes are indicated for short-term enteral feeding. Percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy (PEG) is the gold standard when enteral nutrition is expected for more than 3-4 weeks, especially in H&N tumour and oesophageal cancer patients undergoing definite chemoradiotherapy. A gastropexy push system may be considered to avoid cancer seeding. Radiologic and surgical gastrostomy are alte...Continue Reading

Citations

Jul 21, 2020·Nutrición hospitalaria·Ana LaranjoJorge Fonseca
Aug 8, 2021·Journal of Vascular and Interventional Radiology : JVIR·Chihiro ItouShintaro Kimura
Sep 1, 2021·Nutrition in Clinical Practice : Official Publication of the American Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition·Amy Y SpurlockRyan T Hurt

❮ Previous
Next ❯

Related Concepts