INTRODUCTION:

Weight loss and malnutrition are frequent complications in cancer patients with palliative care needs, given the severity and impact of the disease and associated treatments. The literature demonstrates that the implementation of a care plan where there is the integration of routines for the identification and assessment of nutritional risk, at early stages of the progression of the oncological disease, seems to improve the quality of life and survival of patients with this diagnosis. Thus, it is important to know the current reality in palliative cancer care, so that more assertive and proactive screening and nutritional assessment protocols can be adopted.

OBJECTIVES:

To review published evidence on the nutritional status of cancer patients in palliative care, to whom nutritional screening tools were applied, to assess the need to implement nutritional screening protocols and, if necessary, nutritional assessment.

METHODOLOGY:

We searched in 3 databases (MEDLINE, Web of Knowledge, Scopus) using the keywords “nutrition screening tools” AND “cancer” AND “palliative care”. The search took place on May 31, 2021 and 37 articles were found. 5 articles had the pre- selected criteria for the population and for the intervention.

RESULTS:

According to the articles covered, the tools used to detect nutritional risk are several and, although some assess different parameters, all of them are reliable to reach a result that will impact the patient’s quality of life by allowing an early action, as well as a nutritional intervention in every stage of the disease. The literature defends the use of PG-SGA for the oncology palliative population, referring to it as a tool with good sensitivity and specificity, a practice that includes different types of data.

CONCLUSIONS:

Although the benefits of performing nutritional screening in cancer patients are known and proven, when it is specified for the palliative population, there is still no data that prove and support this clinical practice. Thus, the importance of strengthening the studies to support the need for the use of nutritional risk assessment tools in palliative cancer patients is highlighted.

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