Baseline patient and treatment characteristics in patients with and without malnutrition before, during, or after radiotherapy
| Variable | Entire cohort (n=294) | No malnutrition (n=146) | Malnutrition (n=148) | P value | |||
| No or median | % or IQR | No or median | % or IQR | No or median | % or IQR | ||
| Age (years)* (median and IQR) | 52 | 40–64 | 52 | 41–62 | 51 | 39–67 | 0.67 |
| WHO performance score | |||||||
| 0 | 191 | (65) | 97 | (66) | 94 | (63) | 0.60 |
| ≥1 | 103 | (35) | 49 | (34) | 54 | (37) | |
| Smoking | |||||||
| Never smoked | 113 | (38) | 56 | (38) | 57 | (39) | 0.53 |
| Quit | 97 | (33) | 52 | (36) | 45 | (30) | |
| Current smoker | 84 | (29) | 38 | (26) | 46 | (31) | |
| Alcohol consumption | |||||||
| None | 153 | (52) | 74 | (51) | 79 | (54) | 0.40 |
| <7 glasses/week | 99 | (34) | 54 | (37) | 45 | (30) | |
| >7 glasses/week | 42 | (14) | 18 | (12) | 24 | (16) | |
| Diabetes mellitus | 23 | (8) | 7 | (5) | 16 | (11) | 0.06 |
| Major abdominal surgery | 23 | (8) | 8 | (6) | 15 | (10) | 0.14 |
| Body mass index (median and IQR)* | 26 | 22–29 | 27 | 24–30 | 23 | 20–28 | 0.008 |
| Socioeconomic status | |||||||
| High | 156 | (53) | 74 | (51) | 82 | (55) | 0.42 |
| Low | 138 | (47) | 72 | (49) | 66 | (45) | |
| Menopausal status | |||||||
| Premenopausal | 141 | (48) | 78 | (53) | 75 | (51) | 0.64 |
| Postmenopausal | 153 | (52) | 68 | (47) | 73 | (49) | |
| Histology | |||||||
| SCC | 230 | (78) | 113 | (77) | 117 | (79) | 0.73 |
| Other histology | 64 | (22) | 33 | (23) | 31 | (21) | |
| FIGO stage§ | |||||||
| I | 110 | (37) | 68a | (46) | 42b | (28) | <0.001 |
| II | 119 | (41) | 55a | (38) | 64a | (43) | |
| III | 54 | (18) | 19a | (13) | 35b | (24) | |
| IV | 11 | (4) | 4a | (3) | 7a | (5) | |
| Nodal status | |||||||
| N0 | 127 | (43) | 68 | (47) | 59 | (40) | 0.24 |
| N1 | 167 | (57) | 78 | (53) | 89 | (60) | |
| Brachytherapy n (%) | 274 | (93) | 135 | (93) | 139 | (94) | 0.62 |
| Radiotherapy setting | |||||||
| Primary | 249 | (85) | 123 | (84) | 126 | (85) | 0.87 |
| Adjuvant | 45 | (15) | 23 | (16) | 22 | (15) | |
| Extended field (para-aortal)† | 60 | (20) | 24 | (16) | 36 | (24) | 0.08 |
| Chemotherapy | 220 | (75) | 112 | (76) | 108 | (73) | 0.46 |
| Hyperthermia | 46 | (16) | 12 | (8) | 34 | (23) | <0.001 |
| Overall treatment time‡ | |||||||
| > 50 days | 30 | (10) | 12 | (8) | 18 | (12) | |
| Median and IQR | 44 | 38–48 | 43 | 37–46 | 44 | 38–49 | 0.009 |
Values are number (%) unless otherwise indicated.
Each subscript letter denotes a subset of variables who did not differ significantly from each other between groups.
p<0.05 was considered significant. Reported p values correspond to probability in three way comparison.
Variables are analyzed by Pearson χ2 test unless otherwise indicated.
*One way ANOVA.
†Extension of the pelvic external beam radiotherapy field to include the para-aortic lymph node area.
‡Kruskal–Wallis test.
§Pearson χ2 test for trend.
FIGO, International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics; SCC, squamous cell carcinoma; WHO, World Health Organization.