Hosseini Sayed Mohsen, Salari Nader, Darvishi Niloofar, Siahkamari Zahra, Rahmani Adibeh, Shohaimi Shamarina, Faghihi Seyed Hassan, Mohammadi Masoud
Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Health, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran.
Department of Biostatistics, School of Health, Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences, Kermanshah, Iran.
J Health Popul Nutr. 2025 Jul 12;44(1):252. doi: 10.1186/s41043-025-01006-x.
Cancer remains the foremost cause of mortality worldwide. Additionally, malnutrition frequently occurs among cancer patients and constitutes a significant factor contributing to adverse clinical outcomes and poor prognosis in this population. The present systematic review and meta-analysis study aimed to evaluate the prevalence of severe malnutrition in cancer patients.
This study was conducted based on data extracted from previous published studies reporting the prevalence of malnutrition in cancer patients. Statistical analysis of collected data was performed using Comprehensive Meta-Analysis software (v.2). Systematic searching was applied based on MeSH keywords in medical databases of ScienceDirect, Embase, Scopus, PubMed, Web of Science (WoS), MagIran, SID, and Google Scholar (by December 2024). Following the elimination of duplicate articles, further evaluation was applied through the assessment of Titles and Abstract. Then, the eligibility assessment was performed based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria by two reviewers, independently. The information extracted from Citation Management Software of EndNote was also added. In order to achieve the highest number of eligible articles, the references of all relevant studies were reviewed, manually.
Totally, 19 eligible studies were selected for data extraction and meta-analysis. According to the Random Effect Model, the prevalence of severe malnutrition among cancer patients was reported 19.3% (95% CI: 14.1-25.9%). Also, the results of meta-regression examining the effective factors on heterogeneity, it was found that the rate of malnutrition in cancer patients decreases with sample size, year of study, and the age of cancer patients (p < 0.05).
Malnutrition is a common phenomenon in cancer patients. Continuous monitoring of nutritional status in cancer patients and associated economic and social factors are critical objectives during cancer therapies. According to the results of the present study, cancer therapy should be applied parallel to examination and attention to nutritional status in cancer patients.
癌症仍然是全球首要的死亡原因。此外，营养不良在癌症患者中经常发生，是导致该人群不良临床结局和预后不良的重要因素。本系统评价和荟萃分析研究旨在评估癌症患者中重度营养不良的患病率。
本研究基于从先前发表的报告癌症患者营养不良患病率的研究中提取的数据进行。使用综合荟萃分析软件（第2版）对收集的数据进行统计分析。基于医学主题词（MeSH）关键词，在ScienceDirect、Embase、Scopus、PubMed、科学网（WoS）、MagIran、SID和谷歌学术等医学数据库中进行系统检索（截至2024年12月）。在消除重复文章后，通过标题和摘要评估进行进一步评估。然后，由两名审阅者独立根据纳入和排除标准进行资格评估。还添加了从EndNote文献管理软件中提取的信息。为了获得最多数量的合格文章，手动查阅了所有相关研究的参考文献。
总共选择了19项合格研究进行数据提取和荟萃分析。根据随机效应模型，报告癌症患者中重度营养不良的患病率为19.3%（95%置信区间：14.1 - 25.9%）。此外，对异质性影响因素进行荟萃回归分析的结果表明，癌症患者的营养不良率随样本量、研究年份和癌症患者年龄的增加而降低（p < 0.05）。
营养不良是癌症患者中的常见现象。在癌症治疗期间，持续监测癌症患者的营养状况以及相关的经济和社会因素是关键目标。根据本研究结果，癌症治疗应与对癌症患者营养状况的检查和关注并行进行。
