RESULTS: (1) Weight, BMI and Hb were all significantly decreased after
chemotherapy in the control group (P<0.001), while there was no significant change of weight and BMI in the nutrition group, just with Hb decrease only. However, there was no significant change of all the other nutrition indicators after
chemotherapy in both groups. (2) Compared with the control group, the nutrition group had significantly lower incidence of grade 3 to 4 hematologic toxicities after
chemotherapy (15.4% vs. 42.1%, P=0.004). In addition, the incidence of grade 3 to 4 nonhematologic toxicities after
chemotherapy was also lower in the nutrition group but without statistical significance (0 vs. 9.2%, P=0.123). Logistic regression model was then used for multivariate analysis to identify the factors that affected the toxicity of
chemotherapy in these patients, and the results showed that
nutrition therapy was an independent influencing factor of grade 3 or higher hematological toxicity after
chemotherapy in the patients with
esophageal cancer (P=0.008, RR=6.048, 95%CI: 1.589-23.027). (3) The response rate of
chemotherapy between the control group and the nutrition group had not significant difference.
CONCLUSION: