Abstract:

Objective To investigate the relationship between nutritional status and the prognosis of nasopharyngeal carcinoma patients with concurrent chemoradiotherapy. Methods The clinical data of 134 initial treatment patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma who received concurrent chemoradiotherapy in Guangxi Medical University Cancer Hospital from August 2010 to December 2011 was retrospective analysis. The nutritional status of patients was assessed by nutritional risk screening 2002（NRS2002） scale and patient-generated subjective global assessment（PG-SGA） scale in 3 stages，respectively，i.e.，1 week before radiotherapy （pre-treatment）， 4 weeks after radiotherapy （mid-treatment） and at the end of radiotherapy. The relationship between PG-SGA score and the clinico-pathological characteristics，overall survival（OS） and distant metastasis-free survival（DMFS） of the patients were analyzed. Results The proportion of patients with

NRS2002 score≥3 in 3 stages（pre-treatment，mid-treatment and at the end of treatment） was 30.60% （41/134），75.37%（101/134），and 85.82% （115/134），respectively. The number of the qualitative grade C and B patients of PG-SGA scale gradually increased，and the PG-SGA scores in the mid-treatment and at the end of treatment were significantly worse than the pre-treatment（P<0.001）. T stage，N stage，tumor volume and each site of invasion were positively correlated with PG-SGA score（all P<0.05）. Before，during，and after treatment，the 5-year OS and DMFS of patients with different PG-SGA scores were significantly different（P<0.001）. Conclusions Patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma are at higher risk of malnutrition before concurrent chemoradiotherapy，and their nutritional status continues to deteriorate during concurrent chemoradiotherapy，which is related to poor prognosis.

Key words: Nasopharyngeal carcinoma；Chemoradiotherapy；Nutritional status；Prognosis  ,