The relationship between measures of nutritional status and masticatory function in untreated patients with head and neck cancer.

PURPOSE: Nearly 40% of newly diagnosed patients with head and neck cancer are malnourished before treatment begins with many researchers ascribing the malnutrition to a paucity of teeth. We attempted to determine if inadequate numbers of occluding pairs of teeth, rather than mere numbers of teeth, in newly hospitalized, untreated head and neck cancer patients correlates with nutritional status parameters used to identify those at heightened risk for malnutrition-related complications.

PATIENTS AND

METHODS

Patients and cancer-free, matched controls were evaluated for malnutrition (body mass index < or = 20 [weight (kg)/height (m2)]), serum albumin < or = 2.7 g/dL, hemoglobin < or = 11.9 g/dL, and total lymphocyte count < or = 1,449/muL), and inadequate numbers of occluding pairs of teeth variably defined as less than 5 "posterior pairs" of occluding teeth or less than 6 or 7 "total pairs" of occluding teeth.

RESULTS

Head and neck cancer patients had significantly lower body mass index (P = .005) and total lymphocyte count (P = .019) than controls, but there were no significant correlations between the nutritional and dental variables in either group.

CONCLUSIONS

Untreated head and neck cancer patients frequently have nutritional status parameters indicating heightened risk for malnutrition-related complications but inadequate masticatory function is not a causative factor.