Relationship between Pre-Treatment Nutritional Status, Serum Glutamine, Arginine Levels and Clinicopathological Features in Taiwan Colorectal Cancer Patients

• Published in: Asia Pacific Journal of Clinical Nutrition Vol. 24; no. 4; pp. 598 - 604
• Main Authors: Pan, Yi-Ping, Chang, Pei-Hung, Fan, Chung-Wei, Tseng, Wen-Ko, Huang, Jen-Seng, Chen, Chih-Hung, Chou, Wen-Chi, Wang, Cheng-Hsu, Yeh, Kun-Yun
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Australia HEC Press 01-12-2015
• Subjects: Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Albumins; Arginine; Arginine - blood; Body Mass Index; C-Reactive Protein - analysis; Cancer; Colon (Anatomy); Colorectal Neoplasms - pathology; Colorectal Neoplasms - surgery; Complications; Disease-Free Survival; Evaluation; Female; Glutamine - blood; Humans; Hypoalbuminemia; Length of Stay; Male; Malnutrition; Malnutrition - blood; Malnutrition - complications; Middle Aged; Neoplasm Staging; Nutrition; Nutrition Assessment; Nutritional aspects; Nutritional Status; Taiwan; Therapeutic use; Weight Loss; Taiwan; 体重下降; 低白蛋白质血症; arginine; low BMI; 低身体质量指数; hypoalbuminemia; 精胺酸; glutamine; 麸酰胺酸; body weight loss
• ISSN: 0964-7058; 1440-6047
• DOI: 10.6133/apjcn.2015.24.4.23

Background and Objectives: To examine the relationship between malnutrition criteria, serum glutamine and arginine concentrations, and clinicopathological features in Taiwan colorectal cancer patients.
Methods and Study Design: Three malnutrition criteria (body weight loss >5% over past 6 months, body mass index (BMI) <18.5 kg/m2, and hypoalbuminemia) and serum levels of glutamine and arginine were measured in 164 colorectal patients. Malnutrition status and serum glutamine and arginine concentrations were tested for their association with each other, as well as with the clinicopathological variables.
Results: Of the 164 patients, 38 (23.5%) had body weight loss, 19 (11.9%) had low BMI, and 57 (35.8%) had hypoalbuminemia. The univariate analysis showed hypoalbuminemia was correlated with advanced tumour stage, lower concentrations of glutamine, higher C-reactive protein level, and progression-free survival rate. Univariate analysis also showed glutamine levels were lower in advanced tumour stage, but arginine levels were not associated with any clinicopathologic variables. Neither the nutrition criteria used in this study nor glutamine and arginine levels were correlated with hospital stay or progression-free survival rate in multivariate analysis.
Conclusions: Different nutrition assessment criteria produced different malnutrition rates in colorectal cancer patients; however, pre-treatment malnourished status and low serum glutamine and arginine concentrations were not correlated with hospital stay and progression-free survival rate.