Quality of life and its relation with nutritional status in patients with incurable cancer in palliative care.
BACKGROUND
Nutritional impairment is common in cancer patients and adversely affects quality of life (QoL). The aim of this study was to investigate the association between nutritional status and QoL in incurable cancer patients in palliative care.


METHODS
A prospective cohort with incurable cancer patients referred to the specialized Palliative Care Unit of the National Cancer Institute in Brazil was conducted. The nutritional risk (NR) was assessed using the Patient-Generated Subjective Global Assessment short form (PG-SGA SF), and cancer cachexia (CC) was defined according to the international consensus. QoL was evaluated using the Quality of Life Questionnaire Core 15 Palliative (QLQ-C15-PAL). Multivariate linear regressions analyses were performed to assess the relationship between the nutritional status and QoL scores.


RESULTS
A total of 1039 consecutive patients were included. A high prevalence of NR (85.4%) and CC (78.7%) were observed. The patients with worse nutritional status presented significantly poorer physical, emotional, symptoms domains scales, and overall QoL. CC were significantly associated with QoL scores for dyspnea (p = 0.013), insomnia (p = 0.046), and appetite loss (p = 0.015), while NR were associated with all the QoL domains scales covered in QLQ-C15-PAL.


CONCLUSION
Our findings support that impaired nutritional status was associated with poor QoL in incurable cancer patients. NR assessed by PG-SGA SF better reflects physical, emotional, symptom burden, and overall QoL scores. Thus, this tool may contribute in identifying patients at risk of deterioration QoL.
['de Oliveira|Livia Costa|LC|http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5052-1846', 'Abreu|Gabriela Travassos|GT|', 'Lima|Larissa Calixto|LC|', 'Aredes|Mariah Azevedo|MA|', 'Wiegert|Emanuelly Varea Maria|EVM|']
D001938:Brazil D015331:Cohort Studies D005260:Female D006801:Humans D008297:Male D008875:Middle Aged D009369:Neoplasms D009752:Nutritional Status D010166:Palliative Care D011446:Prospective Studies D011788:Quality of Life D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires D014481:United States
Quality of life Nutritional status Incurable cancer Palliative care Cachexia Malnutrition