PD815 - NUTRITIONAL RISK, WEIGHT LOSS AND INFLAMMATORY MARKERS IN PATIENTS WITH HEMATOLOGIC MALIGNANCIES UNDERGOING STEM CELL TRANSPLANTATION

PD815

NUTRITIONAL RISK, WEIGHT LOSS AND INFLAMMATORY MARKERS IN PATIENTS WITH HEMATOLOGIC MALIGNANCIES UNDERGOING STEM CELL TRANSPLANTATION

B. Balik¹, H. Erkaya², N. I. Genç³, E. Ertaş⁴, T. AYTULU^2,*, T. tan¹, E. Osmanbaşoğlu¹, Ü. B. Üre¹, O. M. akay¹, S. civriz bozdağ¹

¹hematology, ²nutrition and dietetics, ³internal medicine, koc university hospital, istanbul, ⁴biostatistics , selcuk university, konya, Türkiye

Rationale: Patients undergoing stem cell transplantation for hematologic malignancies are at high risk of malnutrition due to reduced oral intake, gastrointestinal toxicity, and treatment-related catabolic stress. This study aimed to evaluate nutritional risk, weight loss, symptom burden, and their association with inflammatory markers.

Methods: This retrospective single-center study included 132 adult patients with lymphoma or myeloma undergoing stem cell transplantation. Nutritional risk was assessed using NRS-2002. Weight loss, pre-transplant nutritional risk, gastrointestinal and oral symptoms, albumin, C-reactive protein (CRP), and neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) were recorded. 

Results: The mean age was 54.4±14.1 years, and 56.1% of patients had lymphoma. High nutritional risk (NRS-2002 ≥3) was present in 25.8% of patients, while 87.9% had weight loss. Pre-transplant nutritional risk was observed in 28.0%. The most frequent symptoms were diarrhea (64.1%), anorexia (64.1%), and odor sensitivity/nausea (61.8%). NRS-2002 score was not significantly correlated with CRP (r=0.10, p=0.25), albumin (r=-0.16, p=0.08), or NLR (r=-0.04, p=0.72). Patients with high NRS-2002 scores had significantly lower albumin levels than those at low risk (37.78±5.01 vs 39.82±3.61, p=0.02), whereas CRP and NLR did not differ significantly. Inflammatory markers were also not significantly associated with the presence or severity of weight loss.

Conclusion: ASCT patients had a high burden of weight loss, nutritional risk, and nutrition-impact symptoms. Lower albumin, but not CRP or NLR, was associated with higher nutritional risk. These findings support routine multidimensional nutritional screening rather than reliance on inflammatory biomarkers alone in hematologic malignancy patients undergoing transplantation.

Disclosure of Interest: None declared