Predicting the need for prolonged enteral supplementation in the patient with head and neck cancer.

Nutritional support is an important consideration in the management of the head and neck cancer patient. In our series, characteristics significantly associated with the need for long-term postoperative nutritional support included stage IV cancers, primary pharyngeal tumors, combined treatment utilizing surgery and radiotherapy, and preoperative weight loss of more than 10 pounds. In planning nutritional support, nasogastric tube feeding is appropriate for short-term use. In contrast, gastrostomy tube feeding is preferable for those head and neck cancer patients with a high probability of requiring long-term nutritional support postoperatively.