Pancreatic enzyme replacement therapy after gastric resection: An update

Enteral Nutrition in Operated-On Gastric Cancer Patients: An Update

It is well established that the preoperative nutritional status of gastric cancer (GC) patients significantly affects the prognosis of the operated patients, their overall survival, as well as the disease-specific survival. Existing data support that preoperative assessment of nutritional status and early correction of nutritional deficiencies exert a favorable effect on early postoperative outcomes. A variety of relevant indices are used to assess the nutritional status of GC patients who are candidates for surgery. The guidelines of almost all international organizations recommend the use of oral enteral nutrition (EN). Oncologically acceptable types of gastrectomy and methods of patient rehabilitation should take into account the expected postoperative nutritional status. The majority of data support that perioperative EN reduces complications and hospital stay, but not mortality. Oral EN in the postoperative period, albeit in small amounts, helps to reduce the weight loss that is a consequence of gastrectomy. Iron deficiency with or without anemia and low serum levels of vitamin B12 are common metabolic sequelae after gastrectomy and should be restored. EN also significantly helps patients undergoing neoadjuvant or adjuvant antineoplastic therapy. The occurrence of the so-called "postgastrectomy syndromes" requires dietary modifications and drug support. This review attempts to highlight the benefits of EN in GC patients undergoing gastrectomy and to emphasize the type of necessary nutritional management, based on current literature data.

Exocrine Pancreatic Insufficiency Dosing Guidelines for Pancreatic Enzyme Replacement Therapy Vary Widely Across Disease Types

BACKGROUND

Pancreatic enzyme replacement therapy (PERT) is the standard treatment for exocrine pancreatic insufficiency (EPI). However, many individuals are inadequately treated, with gaps in clinical dosing, guidelines, and tools to aid individual titration.

METHODS

A systematic review identified research and guidelines on PERT dosing recommendations across conditions, systematically reviewing and synthesizing total PERT intake, meal/snack guidelines, and changes over time to provide an up-to-date look at the most common doses used in studies and guidelines.

RESULTS

This review of 257 articles found wide variability in PERT dosing guidelines within and across conditions. Many patients with EPI are underdosed, with guidelines differing globally and by disease type, and clinician prescribing may also play a role. The most common dosing guidelines focus on starting doses at 40,000-50,000 units of lipase/meal with increases of up to two to three times this amount before pursuing additive therapies. Guidelines and studies typically focus only on fat digestion, and comparison by total daily dose shows underdosing is common. Most PERT studies are on safety and efficacy rather than optimal titration.

CONCLUSION

The current guidelines for PERT in EPI demonstrate substantial variability in dosing recommendations, both within and across disease types. This variation highlights the need for further research to optimize PERT dosing and improve patient outcomes. Healthcare providers should consider individualizing PERT dosing based on nutritional status and response to therapy, ensuring regular follow-up with patients for dose titrations with consideration that most guidelines are framed as initial doses rather than upper limits.

Diagnosis and management of pancreatic insufficiency in patients with gastrectomy due to cancer or gastric ulcers: a virtual roundtable expert discussion

INTRODUCTION

Pancreatic exocrine insufficiency (PEI) is common after gastric resection for cancer or ulcers but is under-recognized and undertreated. Although pancreatic enzyme replacement therapy (PERT) is the mainstay of PEI management, robust evidence supporting its use after gastric surgery is limited.

AREAS COVERED

In the absence of guideline recommendations specific for patients with pancreatic insufficiency after gastrectomy, a panel of experts from different geographical regions convened in a virtual meeting to discuss their approach to patient management.

EXPERT OPINION

Pancreatic insufficiency after gastrointestinal surgery is not a simple post-surgical complication as several factors contribute to its development. Although the pancreas is unimpaired after gastrectomy, it cannot function normally in the altered environment. Pancreatic insufficiency can be challenging to diagnose in gastrectomy patients due to nonspecific symptoms and the absence of a simple diagnostic test. Fecal elastase appears to be the default test, although it is not sufficiently sensitive nor reliable for diagnosing or monitoring PEI. Patients with maldigestion symptoms after gastrectomy are treated pragmatically: those with clinical suspicion of pancreatic insufficiency receive a trial of PERT and are monitored for symptom improvement. There is a clear need for high-quality evidence from clinical trials to guide the management of this patient population.

Incidence, Diagnosis and Management of Malabsorption Following Oesophagectomy: a Systematic Review

BACKGROUND

Survival following oesophagectomy for cancer is improving, resulting in increased focus on quality of life and survivorship. Malabsorption syndrome is multifactorial and includes exocrine pancreatic insufficiency (EPI), small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO) and bile acid malabsorption (BAM). The aim of this study was to evaluate the reported incidence and management of malabsorption syndromes post-oesophagectomy.

METHODS

A systematic search of PubMed, EMBASE, MEDLINE, Scopus and the Cochrane Library evaluating incidence, diagnosis and management of malabsorption was performed for studies published until December 2021.

RESULTS

Of 464 identified studies, eight studies (n = 7 non-randomised longitudinal studies) were included where patients were identified with malnutrition following oesophagectomy. Studies included a combined sample of 328 (range 7-63) patients. Malabsorption syndromes including EPI, SIBO and BAM occurred in 15.9-100%, 37.8-100% and 3.33-100% over 21 days-60 months, 1-24 months and 1-24 months respectively. There was no consensus definition for EPI, SIBO or BAM, and there was variation in diagnostic methods. Diagnostic criteria varied from clinical (gastrointestinal symptoms or weight loss), or biochemical (faecal elastase, hydrogen breath test and Selenium-75-labelled synthetic bile acid measurements). Treatment modalities using pancreatic enzyme replacement, rifaximin or colesevelam showed improvement in symptoms and weight in all studies, where investigated.

CONCLUSIONS

Malabsorption syndromes following oesophagectomy are under-recognised, and thus under-reported. The resultant gastrointestinal symptoms may have a negative effect on post-operative quality of life. Current literature suggests benefit with outlined therapies; however, greater understanding of these conditions, their diagnosis and management is required to further understand which patients will benefit from treatment.

Exocrine pancreatic insufficiency in long-term follow-up after curative gastric resection with D2 lymphadenectomy: A cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND

Exocrine pancreatic insufficiency (EPI) can be a problem following gastrectomies. This study aimed to reveal the EPI prevalence and its possible causes in gastric cancer patients that underwent subtotal or total gastrectomy, with completed oncological treatments, and with long-term disease-free survival success. Additionally, we also sought to determine whether there were any relations between EPI and blood biomarkers, weight change, malnutrition parameters, and quality of life after gastrectomy.

METHODS

A total of 69 gastric cancer patients whose oncological treatments had already been completed, with a minimum follow-up period of 16 months, were included in the study. Fecal samples were taken from all patients for the Fecal Elastase-1 Test, and patients were stratified into three groups based on the results: low (<100 μg/g), moderate (100-200 μg/g), and normal (>200 μg/g). These results were compared with patients' clinical characteristics, blood nutrition biomarkers, Maastricht indexes (MI), Bristol stool scale, and Gastrointestinal Quality of Life Index (GIQLI) scores.

RESULTS

FE-1 levels were low in 33 (47.8%) of the patients, moderate in 11 (15.9%), and normal in 25 (36.2%). The rate of patients receiving chemoradiotherapy (CRT) in the low FE-1 group was higher than the normal FE-1 and moderate FE-1 groups (P < 0.001 and P = 0.012, respectively). The serum total protein and lipase levels were lower in the low FE-1 group than in the normal FE-1 group (P = 0.023 and P < 0.001, respectively). When compared to the normal FE-1 group, the MI score of the low FE-1 group was higher (P = 0.018). The low FE-1 group had lower GIQLI gastrointestinal symptom scores than the normal FE-1 group (P = 0.046).

CONCLUSIONS

During long-term follow-up, EPI can be seen in more than half of patients with gastric cancer after curative gastrectomy. Radiotherapy as an adjunct to adjuvant treatment in the postoperative period is considered a serious risk factor for EPI development. EPI contributes to malnutrition development after gastrectomy and negatively affects the patients' quality of life, especially in terms of gastrointestinal symptoms.

Nutritional management of gastric cancer

Gastric cancer is the third leading cause of cancer mortality and is frequently associated with nutritional disorders, the detection and proper management of which can contribute to improving quality of life and survival. Being aware of the consequences and of the different treatments for this neoplasm allows us to offer an adequate nutritional approach. In surgical candidates, integration into ERAS-type programs is increasingly frequent, and includes a pre-surgical nutritional approach and the initiation of early oral tolerance. After gastrectomy, the new anatomical and functional state of the digestive tract may lead to the appearance of "post-gastrectomy syndromes", the management of which may require diet modification and medical treatment. Those who receive neoadjuvant or adjuvant antineoplastic therapy benefit from specific dietary recommendations based on intercurrent symptoms and/or artificial nutrition. In palliative patients, the nutritional approach should be carried out while respecting the principle of autonomy and weighing the risks and benefits of the intervention. The objective of this review is to highlight the importance and role of nutrition in patients with gastric cancer and to provide guidelines for nutritional management based on the current evidence.

Exocrine Pancreatic Insufficiency Following Gastric Resectional Surgery-is Routine Pancreatic Enzyme Replacement Therapy Necessary?

The data on exocrine pancreatic insufficiency (EPI) following gastric resectional surgery is variable, ranging from 26% to as high as 100%. This study aimed to document symptomatic EPI following gastric resectional surgery and to objectively document EPI, by fecal elastase (FE) testing. This was a cross-sectional study among patients undergoing gastric resection for adenocarcinoma of the stomach, at the Upper Gastrointestinal Surgical Unit at the Christian Medical College Hospital, Vellore, India. A detailed questionnaire was administered to the patients in the postoperative period, to evaluate clinical symptoms of EPI. Further, study participants were tested for FE pre- and postoperatively. Of the 60 patients in this study, the postoperative questionnaire administered to all patients during follow up. None showed symptoms suggestive of EPI. Pre- and post-operative FE testing were feasible in 27 of the 60 patients, which showed a 33% incidence of EPI. None of the patients had clinical symptoms of EPI, following gastric resectional surgery, on short-term follow-up. However, more than a third of the patients tested developed asymptomatic EPI after gastric resectional surgery, based on FE testing. This may be explained by the fact that in the early postoperative period, EPI following gastric resectional surgery perhaps has a mild, subclinical presentation. Therefore routine pancreatic supplementation after gastric resectional surgery may not be necessary. However, one needs to carefully look for worsening of symptoms of EPI on long-term follow-up, which may necessitate appropriate investigations followed by pancreatic enzyme replacement therapy.

Impact of gastric cancer treatment on quality of life of patients

Treatment of gastric cancer is stage specific and ranges from endoscopic resections in early gastric cancer to gastrectomy and multimodal treatment in locally advanced tumour situations. Palliative systemic treatment has the potential to prolong survival in advanced tumour stages. However, tumour-directed therapies and their side-effects potentially worsen the general condition of a patient. Treatment discussions and decisions, especially when trading-off the options with the patient, have widened their focus from 'technical' terms like overall survival, disease-free survival and progression-free survival to patient reported outcomes (PROs) including quality of life (QoL). The assessment of PROs has evolved as important endpoint in clinical studies. A precise definition of QoL seems impossible. Its multiple dimensions can be evaluated by various validated questionnaires like the QLQ-C30 and FACT-G focusing on different priorities. Special additional tools have been developed and validated to assess QoL in gastric cancer patients (QLQ-STO22, FACT-Ga). We herein give an overview on the options to evaluate QoL in patients with gastric cancer and on published data on the impact of tumour-targeted therapy on QoL in these patients.

Nutritional management of gastric cancer

Gastric cancer is the third leading cause of cancer mortality and is frequently associated with nutritional disorders, the detection and proper management of which can contribute to improving quality of life and survival. Being aware of the consequences and of the different treatments for this neoplasm allows us to offer an adequate nutritional approach. In surgical candidates, integration into ERAS-type programs (Enhanced Recovery after Surgery) is increasingly frequent, and includes a pre-surgical nutritional approach and the initiation of early oral tolerance. After gastrectomy, the new anatomical and functional state of the digestive tract may lead to the appearance of «post-gastrectomy syndromes», the management of which may require diet modification and medical treatment. Those who receive neoadjuvant or adjuvant antineoplastic therapy benefit from specific dietary recommendations based on intercurrent symptoms and/or artificial nutrition. In palliative patients, the nutritional approach should be carried out while respecting the principle of autonomy and weighing the risks and benefits of the intervention. The objective of this review is to highlight the importance and role of nutrition in patients with gastric cancer and to provide guidelines for nutritional management based on the current evidence.

Advances in Recombinant Lipases: Production, Engineering, Immobilization and Application in the Pharmaceutical Industry

Lipases are one of the most used enzymes in the pharmaceutical industry due to their efficiency in organic syntheses, mainly in the production of enantiopure drugs. From an industrial viewpoint, the selection of an efficient expression system and host for recombinant lipase production is highly important. The most used hosts are Escherichia coli and Komagataella phaffii (previously known as Pichia pastoris) and less often reported Bacillus and Aspergillus strains. The use of efficient expression systems to overproduce homologous or heterologous lipases often require the use of strong promoters and the co-expression of chaperones. Protein engineering techniques, including rational design and directed evolution, are the most reported strategies for improving lipase characteristics. Additionally, lipases can be immobilized in different supports that enable improved properties and enzyme reuse. Here, we review approaches for strain and protein engineering, immobilization and the application of lipases in the pharmaceutical industry.

Pancreatic atrophy after gastrectomy for gastric cancer

PURPOSE

To investigate the phenomenon of pancreatic atrophy after gastrectomy for gastric cancer, using computed tomography (CT) volumetry.

METHODS

The subjects of this retrospective study were 77 patients who underwent distal gastrectomy (DG) or total gastrectomy (TG) for pStage I gastric cancer in 2014. The relative pancreatic volume ratio was assessed preoperatively, and then 1 and 5 years postoperatively and the results were compared between surgical procedures RESULTS: A total of 14 patients underwent TG with Roux-en-Y (RY) reconstruction, 24 underwent DG with Billroth-I (BI) reconstruction, and 39 underwent DG with RY reconstruction. We observed that the pancreatic volume continued to decrease over the 5 years after DG or TG. Furthermore, the incidence of pancreatic atrophy 5 years postoperatively was significantly greater after TG than after DG. In patients who underwent DG, a greater incidence of pancreatic atrophy was observed after RY reconstruction than after BI reconstruction, 5 years postoperatively.

CONCLUSION

The pancreatic volume continued to decrease after DG and TG for gastric cancer 5 years after treatment. TG was associated with a significantly greater incidence of pancreatic atrophy than DG 5 years postoperatively, as was RY reconstruction vs. BI reconstruction after DG.

The Applicability of a Checklist for the Diagnosis and Treatment of Exocrine Pancreatic Insufficiency: Results of the Italian Exocrine Pancreatic Insufficiency Registry

OBJECTIVE

To evaluate a rapid checklist capable of identifying exocrine pancreatic insufficiency in outpatients.

METHODS

Prospective observational study of a multicenter cohort.

RESULTS

One hundred and two patients were enrolled; 61.8% of the patients had medically-treated benign or malignant pancreatic disease, and 38.2% had a pancreatic resection. Visual examination of the feces was evaluated in 84 patients and it was related to steatorrhea in 51 patients (50.0%). Receiver operating characteristic curves were evaluated for each symptom or clinical sign and four of them (ie, increase in daily bowel movements, number of bowel movements, fatty stools, >10% weight loss) had a satisfactory area under the curve. At multivariate analysis, fatty stools and >10% weight loss entered into this analysis having an area under the curve of 0.916 (95% confidence interval, 0.851-0.981). At 1 month and at one year of follow-up, the pancreatic enzyme replacement therapy administered showed that pancreatic extracts were able to significantly improve the increase in daily bowel movements, the number of bowel movements, fatty and bulky stools and >10% weight loss.

CONCLUSION

Both fatty stools and >10% weight loss were able to clinically evaluate steatorrhea, and their improvement was sufficient to evaluate substitution therapy.

Advantages of Distal Subtotal Gastrectomy over Total Gastrectomy in the Quality of Life of Long-Term Gastric Cancer Survivors

Purpose

This study evaluated differences and shifting patterns in the health-related quality of life (HRQoL) of 5-year gastric cancer survivors after either a distal subtotal gastrectomy (DSG) or total gastrectomy (TG).

Materials and Methods

We analyzed the prospectively collected HRQoL data of 528 patients who survived 5 years without recurrence using the European Organization for the Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) Core Quality of Life Questionnaire and the EORTC Quality of Life Questionnaire-Stomach module according to the type of surgery. The purpose was to identify the proportion of patients with deteriorating HRQoL and to assess the clinical significance of these changes.

Results

Deteriorating HRQoL was prevalent in both groups, including a large proportion of the DSG group. Decreased overall health status and scores on several function scales were less in the DSG group, while increases on the symptom scales were higher in the TG group. For most of the scales, gaps in HRQoL during the early postoperative period did not merge within the 5 years. Scores on the diarrhea and body image scales revealed "moderate changes" in both groups.

Conclusions

During the 5-year period after surgery, the TG group suffered from inferior HRQoL compared to the DSG group. However, a large proportion of the DSG group also suffered HRQoL deterioration. In general, the TG group experienced more HRQoL decline, with diarrhea and body image being the major concerns for both groups. To improve HRQoL after gastrectomy, patients must be better informed about post-gastrectomy symptoms. These symptoms must be vigorously investigated, and medical interventions should be available parallel to nutritional support. Favorable evidence of function-preserving gastrectomy should be established and disseminated to improve the HRQoL of early gastric cancer patients.

Anasarca, steatorrhea, and hypoalbuminemia 18 years after total gastrectomy: a case report

Background

Pancreatic exocrine insufficiency (PEI) is known to occur after total gastrectomy. We experienced a case of PEI occurring 18 years after surgery, leading to a potentially fatal condition of capillary leak syndrome (CLS).

Case presentation

The case is a 58-year-old man on a healthy diet who underwent total gastrectomy 18 years before. He was admitted for a 3-month history of anasarca, steatorrhea, and hypoalbuminemia. An episode of fever occurred during workup, followed by pulmonary edema and shock. The patient was transferred to the intensive care unit and was started on fluid management with albumin infusion. A multidisciplinary team meeting was held, and a clinical diagnosis of PEI resulted in CLS was made and we started administration of oral pancrelipase to show clinical improvement. The patient was discharged, and he remained asymptomatic for 13 months.

Conclusion

In a post-gastrectomy patient with malnutrition, PEI should be suspected regardless of the period since surgery. When recognized, immediate replenishment of albumin and pancreatic enzymes should be initiated to prevent clinical deterioration.

Exocrine pancreatic insufficiency: prevalence, diagnosis, and management

Exocrine pancreatic insufficiency (EPI) is a condition caused by reduced or inappropriate secretion or activity of pancreatic juice and its digestive enzymes, pancreatic lipase in particular. EPI can result in clinical manifestation and biochemical alterations causing reduced quality of life and life-threating complications. EPI is common in pancreatic disorders, where it should be suspected and actively investigated, and in many extrapancreatic conditions. There are various tests available to diagnose EPI, with indirect, noninvasive ones, such as concentration of fecal elastase being more commonly employed. Administration of pancreatic enzymes replacement therapy remains the mainstay of EPI treatment. The present review article will discuss current evidence regarding the prevalence of EPI, the available tests to diagnose it and its treatment.