Malnutrition is a frequent problem in patients with head and neck cancer. Prevention or timely treatment of malnutrition is of great importance because deteriorated nutritional status can have a negative effect on clinical outcome in head and neck cancer patients. Malnutrition is a multidimensional problem, …

OBJECTIVES: To demonstrate that novice dosimetry planners efficiently create clinically acceptable IMRT plans for head and neck cancer (HNC) patients using a commercially available multicriteria optimization (MCO) system. METHODS: Twenty HNC patients were enrolled in this in-silico comparative planning …

Background: The majority of patients diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer are in a position to choose between having a mastectomy or lumpectomy with radiation therapy (breast-conserving therapy). Since the long-term survival rates for mastectomy and for lumpectomy with radiation therapy are comparable, …

Purpose: The Patient-Generated Subjective Global Assessment (PG-SGA), including the PG-SGA Short Form (SF, aka ‘abridged’), was originally developed in the mid 1990’s as a scored, patient self-report, paperbased instrument and has been widely validated. The PG-SGA (SF) has been used for screening, assessment …

Rationale: Inadequate operationalisation of the multidimensial concept of malnutrition may result in inadequate evaluation of nutritional status. In this review we aimed to assess content validity of methods used to assess malnutrition in cancer patients, according to domains directly derived from European …

PURPOSE: To determine the impact of late radiation-induced toxicity on health-related quality of life (HRQoL) among patients with prostate cancer. PATIENTS AND METHODS: The study sample was composed of 227 patients, treated with external beam radiotherapy. Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events …

Bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) may be used to assess fat free mass (FFM) with reasonable validity based on mean-level comparisons, but differences between BIA and DXA may vary by about 4 kg in an individual patient. These results require confirmation in a larger sample of HNC (Head and neck cancer) …

Purpose To investigate the course of quality of life (QoL) among prostate cancer patients treated with external beam radiotherapy and to compare the results with QoL of a normal age-matched reference population. Conclusion Prostate cancer patients experience a small worsening of QoL as compared with …

Screening for psychological distress in patients with cancer is currently being debated in the British Journal of Cancer. Screening has been recommended, as elevated levels of distress have been consistently observed and clinicians tend to overlook the need of psychological support (Carlson et al, 2012; …

BACKGROUND: The treatment-related burden for patients undergoing hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) may be relieved by physical exercises. PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to summarize and analyze the evidence provided by randomized controlled trials (RCTs) on physical exercise interventions …