BARCELONA, Spain--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Baxter International Inc. (NYSE: BAX), a global leader in clinical nutrition, is also present at the ESMO congress to be held in Barcelona from 27 September to 1 October, organizing the symposium “Early and effective nutritional therapy in GI cancer patients: an opportunity to improve outcome.”
Approximately 50% of oncology patients in Europe are affected by malnutrition. While the rate of malnutrition is even higher for patients with gastrointestinal (GI) cancers real-world evidence suggests that only 23% of GI cancer patients have malnutrition diagnosed, due to the lack of appropriate nutritional screening.1 Approximately one quarter of all cancer patients die due to consequences of malnutrition, but cancer-related malnutrition goes undiagnosed in many patients.2
Seven out of ten patients experience feeding problems during cancer treatment, chemotherapy and radiotherapy, leaving them at serious risk of malnutrition and its associated problems.3
Early initiation of clinical nutrition therapy after cancer diagnosis allows to achieve the best possible patient outcomes, improvement of cancer care and optimisation of healthcare resources use.4,5 Parenteral nutrition is a life-sustaining therapy when oral and enteral nutrition are not possible.
1 Tlemsani C et al. (2018) Malnutrition in cancer patients: is a late diagnosis a missed opportunity to improve care? Ann Oncol 29: viii603-40.
2 Hu W-H et al. (2015). Nutr J 14: 91. Lee H et al. (2013) Clin Nutr Res 2: 12-8.
3 ECPC Nutrition Booklet, 2018.
4 Tlemsani C et al. (2018) Malnutrition in cancer patients: is a late diagnosis a missed opportunity to improve care? Ann Oncol 29: viii603-4
5 Goldwasser, F et al. Challenges and Opportunities in Clinical Nutrition in Oncology: Available Evidence, Real-World Practices and the Way Forward, 2018.
