Nutrition in Advanced Disease and End of Life Cancer Care.
Betty Ferrell, Nathaniel Co, William E Rosa
PMID 39706749WHAT IT FOUND
For patients with advanced cancer, nutrition goals may still support long-term treatment, but near end of life they shift to comfort.
Nurses need to discuss artificial nutrition risks, family expectations, and goals repeatedly.
Key findings
01Nutrition goals change with prognosis: during prolonged advanced disease they may resemble earlier-stage care, while in end-of-life care the focus is comfort.
02Enteral nutrition is preferred over parenteral nutrition when either is possible because it has fewer complications, but the benefit of clinically assisted nutrition in advanced cancer is uncertain.
03Nurses should repeatedly assess patient and family understanding of artificial nutrition risks and benefits, because families may equate feeding with care and request it when not medically indicated.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The supplied text does not report original methods or outcomes, so it cannot show that recommended nutrition strategies work. The authors state that the paper provides only a cursory discussion of nutrition in advanced disease and end-of-life care. The patient cases are illustrative examples, not evidence about treatment effects. The article says literature on nutrition in hospice care is sparse and that a chart review found nutritional assessment was often incomplete. The legal discussion is based on United States court cases, so it may not apply in other settings.
Declared interests
No author conflict-of-interest or funding statement is included in the supplied text. The publication types list NIH extramural research support.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read the review's nutrition recommendations or patient cases as proof that artificial nutrition prolongs survival or improves quality of life. The paper says evidence for many interventions is limited, and goals should be comfort-focused when prognosis is short.