Malnutrition among gynaecological cancer patients.

OBJECTIVE

To assess the nutritional status of patients with gynaecological cancer.

DESIGN

A prospective study assessing the nutritional status of gynaecological patients with suspected or proven gynaecological cancer.

SETTING

Queensland Centre for Gynaecological Cancer, Brisbane, Australia; a tertiary referral centre for gynaecological cancer.

SUBJECTS: One hundred forty-five patients with suspected or proven gynaecological cancer aged 20-91 years.

INTERVENTION: Scored patient-generated subjective global assessment (PG-SGA) and serum albumin before treatment.

RESULTS

One hundred and sixteen (80%) patients were categorized as PG-SGA class A, 29 (20%) patients were PG-SGA B and none of the patients were PG-SGA C. Ovarian cancer patients had significantly lower serum albumin levels (P=0.003) and higher PG-SGA scores (P<0.001) than patients with other types of cancer and benign conditions. Sixty-seven per cent of patients with ovarian cancer were classified as PG-SGA B. After adjusting for patient's age, body mass index and albumin level, ovarian cancer patients were 19 times more likely to be categorized as PG-SGA class B compared to patients with benign conditions (95% confidence interval: 3.03-129.8; P=0.002).

CONCLUSION

Malnutrition in gynaecological cancer patients is a significant problem, especially among those patients diagnosed with ovarian cancer.