Nutritional strategies in intensive care and palliative support for patients with advanced-stage malignancies
Wojciech Wiśniewski
2026-03-25
3 min. read
Nutritional strategies in intensive care and palliative support for patients with advanced-stage malignancies
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Patients diagnosed with cancer at an advanced stage frequently experience significant nutrition-related complications. Epidemiological evidence indicates that over four-fifths of individuals develop severe malnutrition alongside anorexia-cachexia syndrome, rooted in diminished appetite, impaired taste perception, and challenges in food consumption—arising both as a direct consequence of tumor progression and as adverse effects of therapeutic interventions, including chemotherapy and radiotherapy.
Nutritional treatment in the intensive care unit
Patients who are unable to eat naturally, are expected to not be able to enter oral nutrition within 7 days, and the patient is at risk of malnutrition, are treated nutritionally. In intensive care units, any patient who cannot enter an oral diet covering 100% of their needs within three days is treated with nutrition. Depending on the patient's clinical condition and the functioning of the gastrointestinal tract, the physician chooses a dietary treatment (delivered, out of the womb).
Nutritional treatment in palliative care
Depending on the patient's condition and malnutrition, deficiencies and demand for the nutrients that are usually given to the patient through the stomach or joint as a supplement to oral nutrition (if possible) should be determined and, in severe cases, non-nutritional treatment should be used. In the case of nutritional supplementation, nutrient supplementation should be applied to reduce long-term body weight loss, as long as the patient is exposed and until the start of the feeding period.