Prevalence of cachexia in head and neck cancer patients: an exploratory study

Already at diagnosis, head and neck cancer patients are at
risk for malnutrition. Local symptoms such as swallowing
problems are a major cause of malnutrition in these
patients.1 Additionally, malnutrition may result from
changes in smell and taste/aversion and loss of appetite.
Presence of these systemic symptoms at diagnosis may be
indicative for the cachexia syndrome. Therefore, we tested
the hypothesis that head and neck cancer patients to be
treated with primary or postoperative (chemo)radiation
suffer from cachexia.