Papel del cuestionario EORTC QLQ-C30 en la predicción de riesgo de desnutrición en pacientes mexicanos con cáncer de cabeza y cuello

introduction: head and neck cancer treatment restricts oral intake and conditioning malnutrition. adequate nutritional support during treatment can limit the impact of side effects. objective: to describe eortc qlq-c30 role for malnutrition risk screening in head and neck cancer patients. methods: analytical and cross-sectional, diagnostic test study in head and neck cancer patients. we correlated malnutrition diagnosis with subjective global assessment (sga) and score for the eortc qlq-c30 scales with pearson and spearman correlation. we realized cor (receiver operating characteristic) curves to calculate cut point in the score for the eortc qlq-c30 scales; we calculated sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value and odds ratio through logistic regression. results: functional scales (role, physic, global health status/qol) showed limited utility to malnutrition risk estimation in people with head and neck cancer. symptoms′ scales with strong association were: pain (sensitivity 76.47%, specificity 69.23%), insomnia (sensitivity 88.24%, specificity 53.85%), fatigue (sensitivity 70.59%, specificity 76.92%). conclusions: eortc qlq-c30 questionnaire is a useful tool to early malnutrition diagnosis in head and neck cancer patients with short term results in nutritional condition, treatment response and a better qol in this kind of patients.