Validation of the Chinese version of functional assessment of anorexia-cachexia therapy (FAACT) scale for measuring quality of life in cancer patients with cachexia

Role of preoperative malnutrition and symptom severity in anorexia-cachexia-related quality of life in patients with operable pancreatic cancer

PURPOSE

This study assessed the changes in malnutrition status, symptom severity, and anorexia-cachexia-related quality of life (QoL) before and after pancreatic surgery and identified significant factors associated with changes in anorexia-cachexia-related QoL in patients with operable pancreatic cancer.

METHODS

In total, 76 patients with pancreatic cancer who were scheduled to undergo surgery were recruited from a medical center in northern Taiwan. The Mini Nutritional Assessment, Symptom Severity Scale, and Functional Assessment of Anorexia-Cachexia Therapy scale were used to assess the patients' nutritional status, symptom severity, and anorexia-cachexia-related QoL, respectively. Bioelectrical impedance analysis was performed using X-Scan Plus II to assess body composition. A generalized estimating equation approach was used to identify significant factors associated with anorexia-cachexia-related QoL.

RESULTS

In total, 42.1% of the patients had malnutrition or were at risk of malnutrition before surgery. Preoperative malnutrition (β = -3.857, p = .001) and higher early satiety (β = -0.629, p = .005), insomnia (β = -0.452, p = .025), and pain (β = -0.779, p < .001) were associated with lower anorexia-cachexia-related QoL.

CONCLUSION

Clinicians should actively assess the nutritional status of patients with pancreatic cancer before surgery and provide symptom cluster management interventions to improve nutrition, insomnia, and pain, which is crucial for enhancing patients' anorexia-cachexia-related QoL.

Validation of the functional assessment of anorexia/cachexia therapy instrument to assess quality of life in maintenance hemodialysis patients with cachexia

BACKGROUND

Many patients on maintenance hemodialysis (MHD) eventually suffer from cachexia. The Functional Assessment of Anorexia/Cachexia Therapy (FAACT) is a tool used to evaluate the quality of life of patients with cachexia related to various diseases, but its suitability for use in MHD patients has yet to be verified. This study aimed to explore the validation of the FAACT in MHD patients by conducting reliability and validity tests.

METHODS

Qualified MHD patients were selected to complete the FAACT and Kidney Disease Quality of Life Short Form 36 (KDQOL-36) questionnaires, and their demographic data and biochemical test results were collected from electronic medical records. Next, the Cronbach's alpha coefficient, paired sample t test and ICC were used to analyze the scale consistency. Additionally, the association between the KDQOL-36 and FAACT was analyzed using Bland-Altman plots and Pearson correlation analysis. Finally, the patients were divided into groups to evaluate discriminant validity.

RESULTS

A total of 299 patients were included in this study. The Cronbach's alpha coefficients of the FAACT and its anorexia-cachexia subscale (ACS) were 0.904 and 0.842, respectively, and their ICC exceeded 0.90. The correlation coefficients between the FAACT and its items ranged from 0.146 to 0.631, and the correlation coefficients between the FAACT and KDQOL-36 dimensions ranged from 0.446 to 0.617. The Bland-Altman plots between the FAACT and KDQOL-36 showed that only 3.3% of the points were outside the 95% limits of agreement. The effects of cachexia status (present or absent) on FAACT and ACS scores had effect sizes of 0.54 (P < 0.001) and 0.60 (P < 0.001), respectively. The FAACT and ACS also significantly discriminated between patients with and without inflammation (P < 0.001).

CONCLUSIONS

The FAACT and ACS have acceptable reliability and validity in MHD patients and are suitable for measuring the quality of life of MHD patients with cachexia.

Study on the relationship between sarcopenia and its components and anorexia in elderly maintenance haemodialysis patients

AIM

This study aimed to investigate the current situation of sarcopenia and anorexia of elderly maintenance haemodialysis patients and analyse the influencing factors.

DESIGN

A cross-sectional design was used in this study.

METHODS

One hundred and twelve elderly patients on MHD in 3 haemodialysis centres in Sichuan, China, were selected. Sarcopenia was diagnosed according to the criteria of the Asian Working Group for Sarcopenia (AWGS). Anorexia was assessed with the Functional Assessment of Anorexia Cachexia Therapy/Anorexia Cachexia Subscale (FAACT/ACS). The relationship between sarcopenia and anorexia was analysed by logistic regression.

RESULTS

The prevalences of sarcopenia and severe sarcopenia in elderly MHD patients were 52.7% and 39.3%, respectively, and the prevalence of anorexia was 25.9%. Severe sarcopenia was independently associated with anorexia, and weekly exercise frequency was independently associated with anorexia. The low SMI value and slow gait speed were strongly associated with anorexia. This study complied with the STROBE checklist.

The effects of a family-centered psychosocial-based nutrition intervention in patients with advanced cancer: the PiCNIC2 pilot randomised controlled trial

Background

Malnutrition in advanced cancer patients is common but limited and inconclusive data exists on the effectiveness of nutrition interventions. Feasibility and acceptability of a novel family-based nutritional psychosocial intervention were established recently. The aims of this present study were to assess the feasibility of undertaking a randomised controlled trial of the latter intervention, to pilot test outcome measures and to explore preliminary outcomes.

Methods

Pilot randomised controlled trial recruiting advanced cancer patients and family caregivers in Australia and Hong Kong. Participants were randomised and assigned to one of two groups, either a family-centered nutritional intervention or the control group receiving usual care only. The intervention provided 2–3 h of direct dietitian contact time with patients and family members over a 4–6-week period. During the intervention, issues with nutrition impact symptoms and food or eating-related psychosocial concerns were addressed through nutrition counselling, with a focus on improving nutrition-related communication between the dyads and setting nutritional goals. Feasibility assessment included recruitment, consent rate, retention rate, and acceptability of assessment tools. Validated nutritional and quality of life self-reported measures were used to collect patient and caregiver outcome data, including the 3-day food diary, the Patient-Generated Subjective Global Assessment Short Form, the Functional Assessment Anorexia/Cachexia scale, Eating-related Distress or Enjoyment, and measures of self-efficacy, carers’ distress, anxiety and depression.

Results

Seventy-four patients and 54 family caregivers participated in the study. Recruitment was challenging, and for every patient agreeing to participate, 14–31 patients had to be screened. The consent rate was 44% in patients and 55% in caregivers. Only half the participants completed the trial’s final assessment. The data showed promise for some patient outcomes in the intervention group, particularly with improvements in eating-related distress (p = 0.046 in the Australian data; p = 0.07 in the Hong Kong data), eating-related enjoyment (p = 0.024, Hong Kong data) and quality of life (p = 0.045, Australian data). Energy and protein intake also increased in a clinically meaningful way. Caregiver data on eating-related distress, anxiety, depression and caregiving burden, however, showed little or no change.

Conclusions

Despite challenges with participant recruitment, the intervention demonstrates good potential to have positive effects on patients’ nutritional status and eating-related distress. The results of this trial warrant a larger and fully-powered trial to ascertain the effectiveness of this intervention.

Trial registration

The trial was registered with the Australian & New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry, registration number ACTRN12618001352291.

Evaluation of Traditional Chinese Medicine Herbs in Oncology Clinical Trials

Despite wide empirical use and demand for traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) herbs worldwide, high-quality clinical trials of TCM herbs in oncology are limited. We developed recommendations for rigorous clinical trials to evaluate their safety and efficacy for oncology patients. To accomplish this goal, the TCM & Cancer Research Committee of the Chinese Pharmaceutical Association convened a working group of oncologists, TCM experts, clinical researchers, biostatisticians, and industry/government representatives to develop principles and approaches for TCM cancer drug clinical trials. They identified 2 categories of herbal drugs based on therapeutic intent: survival improvement and symptom management. The working group also emphasized the need to adopt international standards when appropriate for TCM herbal drug approval and to develop methodology to standardize diagnostic criteria, treatment approaches, and outcome measures according to defining TCM characteristics. These recommendations aim to improve study design and methods to inform rigorous investigation of TCM herbs in patients with cancer.

Development and validation of a clinically applicable score to classify cachexia stages in advanced cancer patients

BACKGROUND

Cachexia is a multifactorial syndrome that is highly prevalent in advanced cancer patients and leads to progressive functional impairments. The classification of cachexia stages is essential for diagnosing and treating cachexia. However, there is a lack of simple tools with good discrimination for classifying cachexia stages. Therefore, our study aimed to develop a clinically applicable cachexia staging score (CSS) and validate its discrimination of clinical outcomes for different cachexia stages.

METHODS

Advanced cancer patients were enrolled in our study. A CSS comprising the following five components was developed: weight loss, a simple questionnaire of sarcopenia (SARC-F), Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group, appetite loss, and abnormal biochemistry. According to the CSS, patients were classified into non-cachexia, pre-cachexia, cachexia, and refractory cachexia stages, and clinical outcomes were compared among the four groups.

RESULTS

Of the 297 participating patients, data from 259 patients were ultimately included. Based on the CSS, patients were classified into non-cachexia (n = 69), pre-cachexia (n = 68), cachexia (n = 103), and refractory cachexia (n = 19) stages. Patients with more severe cachexia stages had lower skeletal muscle indexes (P = 0.002 and P = 0.004 in male and female patients, respectively), higher prevalence of sarcopenia (P = 0.017 and P = 0.027 in male and female patients, respectively), more severe symptom burden (P < 0.001), poorer quality of life (P < 0.001 for all subscales except social well-being), and shorter survival times (P < 0.001).

CONCLUSIONS

The CSS is a simple and clinically applicable tool with excellent discrimination for classifying cachexia stages. This score is extremely useful for the clinical treatment and prognosis of cachexia and for designing clinical trials.

An analysis of the types of recently published research in the field of cachexia

Introduction Cachexia is a common complication of many and varied chronic disease processes, yet it has received very little attention as an area of clinical research effort until recently. We sought to survey the contemporary literature on published research into cachexia to define where it is being published and the proportion of output classified into the main types of research output. Methods I searched the PubMed listings under the topic research term "cachexia" and related terms for articles published in the calendar years of 2015 and 2016, regardless of language. Searches were conducted and relevant papers extracted by two observers, and disagreements were resolved by consensus. Results There were 954 publications, 370 of which were review articles or commentaries, 254 clinical observations or non-randomised trials, 246 original basic science reports and only 26 were randomised controlled trials. These articles were published in 478 separate journals but with 36% of them being published in a core set of 23 journals. The H-index of these papers was 25 and there were 147 papers with 10 or more citations. Of the top 100 cited papers, 25% were published in five journals. Of the top cited papers, 48% were review articles, 18% were original basic science, and 7% were randomised clinical trials. Discussion This analysis shows a steady but modest increase in publications concerning cachexia with a strong pipeline of basic science research but still a relative lack of randomised clinical trials, with none exceeding 1000 patients. Research in cachexia is still in its infancy, but the solid basic science effort offers hope that translation into randomised controlled clinical trials may eventually lead to effective therapies for this troubling and complex clinical disease process.