The relationship between the dietary phytochemical index and disease and treatment-related symptoms of the individuals receiving chemotherapy in the oncology clinic of a private hospital in kocaeli

Phytochemicals may confer substantial benefits in alleviating chemotherapy-related symptoms. This cross-sectional study aimed to determine the role of dietary phytochemicals on cancer-related symptoms in patients receiving chemotherapy. Data including demographic variables, anthropometric measures including weight and height, three-day food record, and Nightingale Symptom Assessment Scale (N-SAS), a composite measure of patients' chemotherapy-related symptoms, were gathered via face-to-face interviews. The dietary phytochemical index (DPI) was computed based on the patient's food records. The study included 152 participants with a mean age of 59.59 ± 13.19 years. The mean N-SAS score was 2.16 ± 0.80. The average DPI score for the entire group was 24.66 ± 6.55, significantly higher in females (26.61 ± 6.06) than males (23.05 ± 6.54) (p=0.001). As the DPI quartile values increased, there was a statistically significant decrease in N-SAS scores (p = 0.002). A significantly negative correlation was found between N-SAS score and DPI and all cancers (r = -0.364; p < 0.001) and different cancer types such as lung (r = -0.513; p = 0.005), breast (r = -0.612; p < 0.001), and GIS (r = -0.329; p = 0.033). Increasing dietary phytochemicals in chemotherapy patients may help manage treatment-related symptoms.