PD862 - PREVALENCE AND HETEROGENEITY OF NUTRITIONAL RISK AT HOSPITAL ADMISSION IN ADULT CANCER PATIENTS: A MULTICENTER STUDY USING PRONTO SCREENING

PD862

PREVALENCE AND HETEROGENEITY OF NUTRITIONAL RISK AT HOSPITAL ADMISSION IN ADULT CANCER PATIENTS: A MULTICENTER STUDY USING PRONTO SCREENING

V. Zub¹, N. Matolinets², S. Fediaieva^2,*, D. Osinskyi³, N. Volkova⁴, D. Serhiychuk⁵, O. Duda⁶, O. Hordiievych⁶, O. Avramets⁷, M. Adyrov⁸, I. Kuibida⁹

¹¹ National Association of Oncologists of Ukraine, Kyiv, ²Danylo Halytsky Lviv National Medical University, Lviv, ³Kyiv City Clinical Oncology Center, ⁴Kyiv Regional Oncology Dispensary, Kyiv, ⁵First Medical Union of Lviv, ⁶Lviv Oncology Regional Diagnostic and Treatment Center, Lviv, ⁷Zhytomyr Regional Oncology Dispensary, Zhytomyr, ⁸Odesa Regional Clinical Anticancer Center, Odesa, ⁹Prykarpattia Clinical Oncology Center, Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine

Rationale: Nutritional risk is often underestimated in patients with cancer, particularly when assessment relies solely on body mass index (BMI). As a result, clinically relevant nutritional impairment may remain unrecognized at hospital admission. Multicenter data on the prevalence and symptom profile of nutritional risk in hospitalized cancer patients are limited. This study aimed to assess the prevalence and clinical characteristics of nutritional risk using PRONTO screening.

Methods: This multicenter observational cross-sectional study was conducted in cancer hospitals in five macro-regions of Ukraine. The study included 2261 patients (mean age - 61 years; 60% - women). In screening we used PRONTO tool, assessing weight loss, reduced appetite or food intake, and weakness, also clinical peculiarities were taken into account. Nutritional risk was defined as PRONTO-positive (PRONTO+).

Results: PRONTO+ was identified in 61.9% of patients at admission, 46.3% of these had all three symptoms, indicating a high burden of concurrent nutritional impairment. Nutritional risk was present across all BMI categories and was most frequent in patients with normal BMI (42.1%), followed by overweight (30.0%) and obesity (23.5%); only 4.4% of PRONTO+ patients were underweight. No linear increase in nutritional risk with advancing tumor stage was observed. 

Conclusion: Nutritional risk affects more than 60% of adult cancer patients  and occurs frequently despite normal or elevated BMI. These findings demonstrate that BMI-based assessment alone is insufficient to identify patients with clinically relevant nutritional impairment. Nutritional risk appears to be primarily symptom driven rather than stage dependent. Systematic nutritional screening at hospitals using PRONTO is essential to ensure timely identification of patients requiring early nutritional intervention in oncology care.

Disclosure of Interest: None declared