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Food and nutrition insecurity and clinical and anthropometric indicators in individuals with cancer eligible for radiotherapy

European Journal of Clinical Nutrition volume 79, pages 690–697 (2025)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Objectives

to analyze the association between food and nutrition insecurity (FNI) and sociodemographic, clinical, and anthropometric indicators in individuals with cancer eligible for curative radiotherapy.

Methods

Study with the collection of sociodemographic and clinical data, and nutritional, anthropometric, and FNI assessment. Estimated Prevalence Ratio (PR) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) of FNI and exposure variables using the Poisson regression model with robust variance.

Results

252 individuals were evaluated, 51.2% female, 60.7% elderly, 40.1% with breast or uterine cancer, 27.8% with urological cancer, 18.2% with head and neck cancer, and 7.5% with difficulty acquiring an enteral diet or nutritional supplement. The prevalence of FNI was 17.9%, 6.4% being moderate and 3.6% severe. FNI was less frequent in the high-income tertile (PR = 0,38; 95% CI: 0,18–0,79), and in individuals with urological tumors (PR = 0.12; 95% CI: 0.04–0.37), while higher prevalences were identified in non-white individuals (PR = 1,82; 95% CI: 1.01–3.28) among those with stage IV tumor (PR = 1.42; 95% CI: 1.03–1.95), with severe weight loss (PR = 2.99; 95% CI: 1.75–4.82), severely malnourished (PR = 2.58; 95% CI: 1.34–4.95) and bedridden (PR = 5.54; 95% CI: 2.72–11.29). Additionally, a higher prevalence of FNI associated with a reduction in usual food consumption (PR = 2.09; 95% CI: 1.24–3.54), the need to modify the consistency of the diet (PR = 3.45; 95% CI: 2.11–5.67), use of caloric supplements (PR = 2.07; 95% CI: 1.17–3.69) or enteral feeding (PR = 3.46; 95% CI: 2.01–5.94).

Conclusion

One in five individuals with cancer presented FNI associated with socioeconomic and nutritional vulnerability in the radiotherapy pre-treatment phase.

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Data availability

The datasets generated and/or analyzed during the current study are not publicly available but are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

We express our gratitude to the Graduate Program in Food and Nutrition, the Department of Nutrition at the Federal University of Paraná, and the Erasto Gaertner Hospital for providing the facilities and equipment for conducting the research and data analysis. We extend our thanks to all those who contributed at every stage of the study.

Funding

The project utilized resources from the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) e Fundação Araucária through the institutional program for undergraduate research students. This study was financed in part by the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior – Brasil (CAPES) - Finance Code 001.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Post-Graduate Program in Food and Nutrition, Federal University of Paraná, Curitiba, Brazil

    Panera Charnioski de Andrade & Aniely Fernanda de Oliveira Hinokuma

  2. Department of Nutrition, Federal University of Paraná, Curitiba, PR, Brazil

    Doroteia Aparecida Höfelmann

Authors
  1. Panera Charnioski de Andrade
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  2. Aniely Fernanda de Oliveira Hinokuma
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  3. Doroteia Aparecida Höfelmann
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Contributions

PCA: study concept, data acquisition, analysis, and manuscript drafting. AFOH: study concept, data acquisition, and manuscript critical review. DAH: study concept, statistical analysis, data interpretation, manuscript critical review, and final approval.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Doroteia Aparecida Höfelmann.

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Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Ethical approval and consent to participate

This study was conducted in accordance with relevant guidelines and regulations. The project was approved by the Research Ethics Committee of the Federal University of Paraná on 02/21/2022 under the Certificate of Presentation of Ethical Appreciation protocol number 53073721.0.0000.0102 and was subsequently approved by the Erasto Gaertner Hospital’s Research Ethics Committee on 03/09/2022. The Free and Informed Consent Form was applied, and consent to participate in the research was given upon agreement and signature of the term by the participant.

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de Andrade, P.C., de Oliveira Hinokuma, A.F. & Höfelmann, D.A. Food and nutrition insecurity and clinical and anthropometric indicators in individuals with cancer eligible for radiotherapy. Eur J Clin Nutr 79, 690–697 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41430-025-01593-2

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