Evaluation of sarcopenia and nutritional status in geriatric and NON-geriatric patients WHO are just starting or have started cancer treatment

Considering that nutrition has a net effect on long-term survival in cancer patients, nutrition-related parameters have also been investigated in detail. In this study, 60 adult cancer patients with cancer who will receive chemotherapy for the first time and 63 adult cancer patients between the 3rd month and 1st year of chemotherapy treatment were evaluated in terms of sarcopenia and nutritional status. These effects were compared according to whether the patients were geriatric or not, and sarcopenic patients were also evaluated by classifying them according to cancer types. Malnutrition risks were examined along with three-day food consumption records and laboratory parameters. Malnutrition risk was high in 39% of the patients, and it was found to be higher in geriatric patients than in non-geriatric patients (p=0.029). The risk of malnutrition is associated with the primary cancer type. Compared to breast cancer, the risk of malnutrition was 18.2 times (p=0.002) higher in hepatobiliary cancers (including pancreas) and 7.6 times (p=0.018) in other cancers (head and neck, sarcoma, brain, stomach, peritoneum). The difference in sarcopenia between geriatric and non-geriatric patients and the 1st and 2nd cure patients was not statistically significant. The cross-sectional design of our study, the inclusion of heterogeneous patients in terms of cancer types, and the patients received nutrition education in the first cure may have affected our results. There is a need for randomized controlled large and prospective clinical studies investigating nutritional status and sarcopenia in cancers seen in the geriatric age group.