Nutritional requirements in HNC cancer cases undergoing surgery: A narrative review.

Abstract

Malignant tumours arising from different sites of the upper aero-digestive tract like the paranasal sinuses and the salivary glands constitute the Head and neck cancer (HNC). Today newer guidelines are available that can serve to assess the nutritional requirements of HNC. Dieticians are able to estimate and achieve the nutritional requirements for HNC patients through set equations provided for cancer patients. Nutritional assessment is missed out in many of the cases, unless anorexia and cachexia is very severe. Therefore the assessment of the feasibility of criteria for nutrition support is essential to be evaluated. This paper highlights the need for nutritional consideration among HNF cases.