Hyperalimentation in patients with cancer.

Hyperalimentation can improve nutrition in patients with cancer. It has proved to be effective in the management of certain postoperative complications. Some patients are able to receive antitumor therapy who would otherwise be denied treatment because of severe malnutrition. The morbidity of chemotherapy and radiation therapy may be decreased, delivery of greater doses of chemotherapy is possible and responses to chemotherapy may be enhanced. Hyperalimentation can reverse the nutritional components of the immunodepression of malignant disease. Although it may stimulate tumor growth in animals, hyperalimentation has had no adverse clinical consequences to date.