Nutritional Evaluation and Nutrition Support of Oral Cancer Patients
Disease-free survival and quality of life of the oral cancer patient can be influenced by nutritional status. Malnourished patients are at high risk for surgical and treatment-related complications ultimately impacting survival and many aspects of quality
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Nutritional Evaluation and Nutrition Support of Oral Cancer Patients Mary Platek and Christina Mimikos
8.1
Introduction
The ability to recover from surgery without complication and to receive optimal dosage of additional treatment modalities without interruption is essential to the disease-free survival and quality of life of the oral cancer patient. Validated malnutrition screening tools can identify oral cancer patients at risk for malnutrition and consequentially at risk for surgical and treatment-related complications. Throughout the continuum of care for oral cancer patients, malnutrition screening should be a part of the standard of care they receive. Despite improvements in surgery and cancer therapies, the prevalence of malnutrition remains quite high among cancer patients and specifically among those suffering from oral cancer and other forms of head and neck cancer. The nutritional status or the nutritional health of an individual influences overall health and one’s ability to optimally recover from surgery and to complete adjuvant or other definitive treatment within the necessary time frame. Diet, the sum total of food and beverage intake, is a major contributor to how well we are nourished. Nutritional status is the result of interrelated factors that include ability to digest food, absorb nutrients and excrete toxins. In this chapter, we will refer to nutritional status and dietary intake separately.
8.2
Nutrition and Oral Cancer Prevention
Alcohol is the only dietary factor that is associated with oral cancer. The risk for oral cancer increases as alcohol intake increases in a dose-dependent fashion. Abuse of alcohol and use of tobacco synergistically contribute to oral cancer [1]. Attributable M. Platek, PhD () • C. Mimikos, DO Department of Head and Neck Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Roswell Park Cancer Institute, Buffalo, NY, USA e-mail: [email protected] © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2017 M.A. Kuriakose (ed.), Contemporary Oral Oncology, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-43857-3_8
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risk from smoking and alcohol combined is approximately 74 % [2]. Non-habitual drinking habits, such as episodic or binge drinking, are also suspected risk factors for alcohol-related cancers. The effect of diet on the risk of oral cancer is not well established. In general the evidence that adequate amounts of fruit and non-starchy vegetables decreases cancer risk is considered probable. In the case of oral cancer, adequate intake of fruit and non-starchy vegetables and foods containing carotenoids has been associated with a reduction in incidence suggesting a potential role for antioxidant supplementation [3–5]. Additionally, reports suggest that coffee intake [6] and adequate or increased intake from singular dietary micronutrients is protective. Specifically, dietary folate intake and dietary vitamin C have been investigated as protective factors [7–9], but most of the diet-related evidence comes from non-prospective association studies such as c
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