ObjectiveTo systematically review the main methods for nutritional risk assessment used in critically ill cancer patients and present the methods that better assess risks and predict relevant clinical outcomes in this group of patients, as well as to discuss the pros and cons of these methods according to the current literature.MethodsThe study consisted of a systematic review based on analysis of manuscripts retrieved from the PubMed, LILACS and SciELO databases by searching for the key words “nutritional risk assessment”, “critically ill” and “cancer”.ResultsOnly 6 (17.7%) of 34 initially retrieved papers met the inclusion criteria and were selected for the review. The main outcomes of these studies were that resting energy expenditure was associated with undernourishment and overfeeding. The high Patient-Generated Subjective Global Assessment score was significantly associated with low food intake, weight loss and malnutrition. In terms of biochemical markers, higher levels of creatinine, albumin and urea were significantly associated with lower mortality. The worst survival was found for patients with worse Eastern Cooperative Oncologic Group - performance status, high Glasgow Prognostic Score, low albumin, high Patient-Generated Subjective Global Assessment score and high alkaline phosphatase levels. Geriatric Nutritional Risk Index values < 87 were significantly associated with mortality. A high Prognostic Inflammatory and Nutritional Index score was associated with abnormal nutritional status in critically ill cancer patients. Among the reviewed studies that examined weight and body mass index alone, no significant clinical outcome was found.ConclusionNone of the methods reviewed helped to define risk among these patients. Therefore, assessment by a combination of weight loss and serum measurements, preferably in combination with other methods using scores such as Eastern Cooperative Oncologic Group - performance status, Glasgow Prognostic Score and Patient-Generated Subjective Global Assessment, is suggested given that their use is simple, feasible and useful in such cases.

A B S T R A C TPatients with gastrointestinal cancer and malnutrition are less likely to tolerate major surgical procedures, radiotherapy or chemotherapy.In general, they display a higher incidence of complications such as infection, dehiscence and sepsis, which increases the length of stay and risk of death, and reduces quality of life. The aim of this review is to discuss the pros and cons of different points of view to assess nutritional risk in patients with gastrointestinal tract (GIT) tumors and their viability, considering the current understanding and screening approaches in the field. A better combination of anthropometric, laboratory and subjective evaluations is needed in patients with GIT cancer, since malnutrition in these patients is usually much more severe than in those patients with tumors at sites other than the GIT. Therefore, in the daily practice of oncology, the definition of an appreciable and simple to apply nutritional assessment tool is necessary to identify nutritional risk patients and thus determine the best approach and appropriate nutritional support 8 . The objective of this review is to present an overview of the methods and tools used to determine nutritional risk, considering the pros and cons when applied to patients with GIT cancer. METHODSWe systematically identified studies on nutritional status of patients with GIT cancer through the PubMed and MEDLINE databases. We researched articles published in the last ten years by combining the terms "nutritional assessment", "GI cancer", "gastrointestinal tract", "gastric cancer", "oesophageal cancer" and "pancreatic cancer". We considered for evaluation only complete articles with those terms in English or Portuguese. We identified additional articles from citations in the articles evaluated. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION General review of nutritional assessmentIt was in the 1950s that authors first published research related to nutritional assessment procedures. Subjective methodsIn 1980, Detsky et al. described the Subjective Global Assessment (SGA) used to assess preoperative patients with GIT tumors (n = 202) undergoing major surgical procedures; They have shown that SGA could be easily applied and considered it a valid and reliable method to estimate the surgical patients' nutritional status 12 .Other authors have published several articles supporting the SGA in determining nutritional status, which differed from other methods in considering not only changes in body composition, but also functional changes. In addition, SGA is a simple, inexpensive, non-invasive method and can be performed at bedside.Correct guidance on the SGA application is essential, since its accuracy depends on the observer's ability to detect subjectively significant nutritional changes 8,13,14 .Subsequently, the SGA has undergone modi- Wu et al. had higher incidence of complications and longer hospital stay the worse the level of SGA in patients undergoing major procedures for GIT cancer (mainly gastric) 18 . These results were also supported by our series o...

Objective: to evaluate the association between the nutritional and the inflammatory statuses of patients with cancer of the gastrointestinal tract undergoing surgical resection and to identify predictors of mortality in these patients. Methods: we conducted a prospective study of 41 patients with gastrointestinal tract cancer submitted to surgery between October 2012 and December 2014. We evaluated the nutritional status by subjective and objective methods. We assessed the inflammatory response and prognosis using the modified Glasgow Prognostic Score (mGPS), Neutrophil/Lymphocyte Ratio (NLR), Onodera Prognostic Nutritional Index (mPNI), Inflammatory-Nutritional Index (INI) and C-Reactive Protein/Albumin ratio (mPINI). Results: half of the patients were malnourished and 27% were at nutritional risk. There was a positive association between the percentage of weight loss (%WL) and the markers NLR (p=0.047), mPINI (p=0.014) and INI (p=0.015). Serum albumin levels (p=0.015), INI (p=0.026) and mPINI (p=0.026) were significantly associated with the PG-SGA categories. On multivariate analysis, albumin was the only inflammatory marker independently related to death (p=0.004). Conclusion: inflammatory markers were significantly associated with malnutrition, demonstrating that the higher the inflammatory response, the worse the PG-SGA (B and C) scores and the higher the %WL in these patients. However, further studies aimed at improving surgical outcomes and determining the role of these markers as predictors of mortality are required.

by combining food intake, dysphagia and appetite assessment altogether, a reliable score clearly demonstrated compromised eating capacity affecting nutritional status of patients with GIT tumors at a higher risk for death.

Introduction: Costs, length of hospital staying and morbidity are frequently and significantly increased as a result of infections and other complications following surgical procedure for gastrointestinal tract cancer. Recently, improving host defence mechanisms have become a target of interest. Immunonutrition aims at improving immunity, most likely providing key nutrients to maintain T-lymphocyte and other host defence. Aim : To evaluate the immunonutrition in cancer patients who are operated by digestive diseases and assess the cost-effectiveness of this supplementation. Methods:This study consisted of a systematic review of the literature based on reference analyses retrieved from current databases such as PubMed, Lilacs and SciELO. The search strategy was defined by terms related to immunonutrition [immunonutrition, arginine, omega-3 and nucleotides] in combination with [costs, cost-effective and cost-effectiveness] as well as [gastrointestinal cancer surgery, oesophageal, gastric or pancreatic surgery] in English, Portuguese or Spanish language. For cost analyses, currencies used in the manuscripts were all converted to American dollars (US$) in order to uniform and facilitate comparison. Six prospective randomized studies were included in this review. Conclusion:The cost-effectiveness was positive in most of studies, demonstrating that this diet can significantly reduce hospital costs in the North hemisphere. However, similar studies needed to be carried to determine such results among us.