title: An Interdisciplinary Nutrition Support Team Improves Clinical and Hospitalized Outcomes of Esophageal Cancer Patients with Concurrent Chemoradiotherapy.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The prevalence of malnutrition is very high in patients with cancer. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether or not a nutrition support team (NST) could benefit esophageal cancer patients undergoing chemoradiotherapy (CRT).
  
  
  METHODS
  Between June 2012 and April 2014, 50 esophageal cancer patients undergoing concurrent CRT were randomly assigned into two groups: The NST group and the control group. The nutritional statuses of 25 patients in the NST group were managed by the NST. The other 25 patients in the control group underwent the supervision of radiotherapy practitioners. At the end of the CRT, nutritional status, the incidence of complications, and completion rate of radiotherapy were evaluated. Besides, the length of hospital stay (LOS) and the in-patient cost were also compared between these two groups.
  
  
  RESULTS
  At the completion of CRF, the nutritional status in the NST group were much better than those in the control group, as evidenced by prealbumin (ALB), transferrin, and ALB parameters (P = 0.001, 0.000, and 0.000, respectively). The complication incidences, including bone marrow suppression (20% vs. 48%, P = 0.037) and complications related infections (12% vs. 44%, P = 0.012), in the NST group were lower and significantly different from the control group. In addition, only one patient in the NST group did not complete the planned radiotherapy while 6 patients in the control group had interrupted or delayed radiotherapy (96% vs. 76%, P = 0.103). Furthermore, the average LOS was decreased by 4.5 days (P = 0.001) and in-patient cost was reduced to 1.26 ± 0.75 thousand US dollars person-times (P > 0.05) in the NST group.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  A NST could provide positive effects in esophageal cancer patients during concurrent CRT on maintaining their nutrition status and improving the compliance of CRF. Moreover, the NST could be helpful on reducing LOS and in-patient costs.
authors.forename: Ming-Hua
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Cong
authors.forename: Shu-Luan
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Guo-Wei
authors.initials: GW
authors.lastname: Cheng
authors.forename: Jin-Ying
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Chen-Xin
authors.initials: CX
authors.lastname: Song
authors.forename: Ying-Bing
authors.initials: YB
authors.lastname: Deng
authors.forename: Wei-Hu
authors.initials: WH
authors.lastname: Shang
authors.forename: Di
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Xue-Hui
authors.initials: XH
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Wei-Wei
authors.initials: WW
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Shi-Yan
authors.initials: SY
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.affiliation: Department of Comprehensive Oncology, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences Cancer Hospital, Beijing 100021, China.
authors.forename: Lei
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Yu
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D059248:Chemoradiotherapy; D004938:Esophageal Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000628:therapy*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007902:Length of Stay; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009752:Nutritional Status; D018529:Nutritional Support / Q000379:methods*; D010348:Patient Care Team; D016896:Treatment Outcome