Body weight and body composition changes in cancer patients during chemotherapy in Iran university of medical sciences-affiliated hospitals, 2006-7

Bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) is a simple and noninvasive body composition analysis technique. The aim of this study was to assess the body composition and its trend of changes in adult cancer patients referred to Tehran Rasol-e-Akram and Firoozgar Hospitals for chemotherapy. In this cross-sectional study, 71 patients (41 men and 30 women, 51.9±15.4 years old) with different types of malignancies were selected from the 2 hospitals by stratified sampling. Body composition was determined by the BIA technique at the beginning, in the middle, and at the end of the chemotherapy treatment period. Data were analyzed by repeated measure ANOVA and Wilcoxon tests, using the SPSS12 software. Nonsignificant changes were observed in the mean weight, fat-free mass, fat mass, dry fat-free mass and total body water of the 50 patients who successfully completed the treatment (average of 5 months). Twenty-one patients died during the treatment cycles (average of 2.5 months). They had a significant decreasing trend for weight, fat mass and dry fat-free mass (P= 0.01, P= 0.02, and P= 0.01, respectively); they had a higher reduction of fat mass than fat-free mass (2 ± 3.8 kg and 0.7±1.9 kg respectively). Weight reduction of the cancer patients who died during the study was due to both fat mass and dry fat-free mass reductions, while in the patients who successfully completed the treatment no significant changes in body weight or body compositions were observed. It can be concluded that weight loss due to reductions in fat mass and dry fat-free mass in cancer patients during chemotherapy may result in their decreased survival.