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Letter
Under nutrition in cancer: single-centre prospective study
  1. Wala Ben Kridis and
  2. Afef Khanfir
  1. Department of oncology, Habib Bourguiba Hospital university of Sfax, Sfax, 3029, Tunisia
  1. Correspondence to Dr Wala Ben Kridis, Habib Bourguiba Hospital, Sfax, 3029, Tunisia; walabenkridis{at}yahoo.fr

https://doi.org/10.1136/spcare-2023-004730

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    Introduction

    Undernutrition is a major problem for people with cancer. It represents a factor that influences tolerance to oncological treatments as well as survival.

    The high prevalence of cancer-related malnutrition and its negative consequences are taken too lightly in most oncology units. Studies from Germany, France, Spain and Brazil reported malnutrition prevalence ranging from 25% to over 70% based on nutritional assessments.1

    This work aimed to detect undernutrition among patients with cancer in southern Tunisia and its correlated factors.

    Materials and methods

    This is a cross-sectional prospective study carried out in the medical oncology department of the Habib Bourguiba University Hospital in Sfax. A survey was conducted to detect and explore undernutrition in patients with cancer.

    The survey was done over a period of 1 month (September 2019).

    We excluded patients who were patients unfit to answer the questions and those who refused participation in the survey. We studied the variation in weight compared with usual weight (with an interval of 1 month), serum albumin and Nutritional Risk Index (NRI). NRI=(1.489×albumin, g/L)+41.7 (current weight/usual weight).

    When the NRI is >100, …

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    Footnotes

    • Contributors WBK: idea, conception, analysis; AK: supervision, revision. All authors reviewed the manuscript.

    • Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; internally peer reviewed.