Association of Patients’ Energy and Protein Intake with the Stage of the Disease in Oropharyngeal Cancer

Background and Objectives: Despite the importance of nutrition on, lip, oral cavity, and pharynx cancer patients, the relationship between dietary intake and stage of their disease is not well-documented. This study aims to investigate the association between energy and protein intake with the clinical stage of the disease.
Materials and methods: This cross-sectional study executed convenience sampling to enlist 282 patients aged over 18 years from Apeksha Hospital, Maharagama for one year. The sample included individuals histologically confirmed with lip, oral cavity, or pharynx cancer, of any sex, with proficiency in Sinhala and/or English. Patients with diabetes, chronic kidney disease, and cardiovascular disease were excluded. Dietary intake was scrutinized through a 24-hour recall and analyzed using Food Base 2000 software. Nutrition-related symptoms were measured using the Patient-Generated Subjective Global Assessment (PG-SGA). Pearson’s Chi-squared test facilitated statistical interpretation of the association between daily energy and protein intake with the stage of the disease.
Results: The majority of the patients were male (89%), the mean age was 59 years, most had cheek mucosa cancer (20.92%), and Stage III of the disease (53.55%). 81% fed by oral route and the most had difficulty in swallowing. The average energy and protein intake of a subject was 1428.24 kcal/day and 47.69 g/day respectively. There was not enough evidence to suggest an association between patients’ energy intake (p=0.389) and protein intake (p=0.755) with their Stage of the Disease.
Conclusions: This investigation concludes that the energy and protein consumption of the patient is not associate on the stage of their disease. Hence, nutritional interventions can be planned despite of the stage of the disease. The study concludes, that the most prominent nutrition-related symptom is difficulty in swallowing, which emphasizes the importance of early intervention of alternative feeding routes. The study reveals that protein consumption is suboptimal across all stages of the disease.