Patients with
cancer of the upper gastrointestinal tract such as the esophagus and stomach are malnourished as a result of their
cancer-bearing status. In such patients,
malnutrition reduces the effects of anti-
cancer therapy including surgical treatment. Therefore, we studied the effect of
nutritional support in patients with upper
gastrointestinal cancer. The incidence of postoperative complications was correlated with the preoperative nutritional status. Thus, improvement of nutritional status by preoperative
nutritional support is thought to be important. As metabolic disturbances frequently accompany advanced
cancer, the quantity of calories and quality of nutritional regimen were found to be important for improving such metabolic disorders. In the postoperative period,
total parenteral nutrition (TPN) prevented the depression of cell-mediated immunity, increased the tolerance to anti-
cancer drugs during
chemotherapy as an adjunct to surgery, and prolonged the disease-free interval, in patients undergoing absolute non-curative
gastrectomy for advanced
gastric cancer. The results of
chemotherapy were better in recurrent upper
gastrointestinal cancer patients whose nutritional parameters were in a favorable range on admission or improved after 2 weeks of TPN.