Abstract

While multidisciplinary consultation meetings on therapeutic protocols, psychological management, treatment of pain for patients living with cancer are setting up, their nutritional status in Côte-d'Ivoire is almost absent in oncology units. This study aimed to assess the nutritional profile of adult patients with cancer, followed at the oncology service of the University Hospital of Treichville. A descriptive and analytical cross-sectional study was conducted over a 40-day period, from an anonymous questionnaire and involving fifty-three (53) cancer patients. sociodemographic, clinical and biological data as well as qualitative parameters on food consumption (24-hour recall) were collected. The results revealed that the mean age was 51 years with a female predominance (87.5%). The nutritional status of patients was evaluated according to several parameters: The Body Mass Index (BMI) accounted for 8.33% of malnourished patients with 37.5% of patients being obese or overweight. Weight loss in the 6 months preceding the survey concerned 77.55% patients, 30.61% of whom were severely malnourished. Albuminemia and the Nutritional Risk Index (NRI) showed that respectively 13.5% of the patients were malnourished and 22.5% of patients were at risk of complications related to undernutrition. In 18.87% of cases, surveyed patients had taken less than three meals a day. Therefore, prevalence of undernutrition/malnutrition was high in the study population. No single parameter was sufficiently sensitive and specific. Based on this, the combination of several parameters is necessary for an objective assessment for intervention. Nutritional management of patients living with cancer deserves to be integrated into the overall therapeutic project.

Key words: Nutrition, cancer, undernutrition, nutritional assessment, food intake.