Title : Summary of best evidence for management of nutrition impact symptoms in patients with esophageal cancer undergoing neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy
Abstract:
Background: Nutrition Impact Symptoms (NIS)refer to a constellation of symptoms affecting patients' ability to eat due to disease or treatment. Patients with esophageal cancer undergoing neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy experience a substantial burden of NIS during treatment, which can lead to nutritional deterioration and result in treatment interruption or delay. The aim of this study is to provide an evidence-based basis for clinical practice of NIS management in patients with esophageal cancer undergoing neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy by systematically summarising the best current evidence.
Methods: According to the “6S”evidence resource model, evidence retrieval was searched from the top-down and collected relevant guidelines, best practices, evidence summaries, systematic reviews and expert consensus. The retrieval time limit was from database establishment to 20 October 2025. Two reviewers independently screened and evaluated the literature, and then extracted and summarised the evidence according to the JBI grading of evidence and recommendation system.
Results: A total of 32 publications were finally included, including 6 clinical decisions, 14 guidelines, 7 evidence summaries, 4 expert consensus and 1 systematic review. Through the induction and integration of the evidence, the evidence was finally summarised from four symptom themes: gastrointestinal-related symptoms, eating-related symptoms, treatment side effects-related symptoms and emotional-related symptoms, and 38 best evidences were formed.
Conclusions: This study systematically summarised the best evidence for NIS management in patients with esophageal cancer undergoing neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy, which can provide guidance for clinical staff to develop and apply NIS intervention and practice programmes for these patients and improved the nutritional status and quality of life.
Kywords: Best Evidence, Nutrition Impact Symptoms, Management, Esophageal Cancer, Neoadjuvant Chemoradiotherapy.
