Malnutrition in Cancer and Liver Disease: Exploring Health Outcomes

Abstract

Instructor’s Name Introduction. Out of the five topics highlighted, I chose “Outcomes Associated with Nutritional Status." Some health conditions are associated with long-term loss of appetite, vomiting, diarrhea, and prolonged sickness jeopardizing how the body systems function normally causing malnutrition. Regarding this analogy and the chosen topic, this research tries to answer the question “What associations exist between nutritional status and health outcomes?” the health conditions I will focus on are liver disease and cancer. According to (Dukhi 2020), malnutrition is a widespread problem that affects the global population occurring when there is an imbalance in the body whereby the nutrients required by the body do not balance with those used by the body. Cancer and its treatment significantly impact the human body. Cancerous tumors compete with body resources prompting starvation. Treatment of cancer contributes to loss of appetite, taste, smell, and ability to eat enough food. According to (Kamran et al., 2020), the liver plays a significant role in regulating the nutritional state and energy balance. Liver cirrhosis is an example of liver disease that is characterized by loss of appetite affecting the nutritional status of an individual. Article search. This research employs articles from current studies (2017- 2022). I used Google search engine and the university library to obtain articles from reputable sources such as PubMed (NCBI journals). I used the terminology ‘nutritional status's and ‘malnutrition’ to search for information relating to my topic. A significant number of journals on malnutrition associated with various diseases were present. After skimming on the articles, various health conditions such as liver disease, cancer, dementia, schizophrenia, depression and anorexia nervosa link to malnutrition. I narrowed down my search specifically to cancer and liver disease using a variety of articles. Article findings. The articles I found were diverse, and they covered a lot of issues relating to cancer and liver disease. I could deduce the causes, diagnoses, and treatment of the health conditions from these articles and the main theme is malnutrition. According to (Lis et al., 2012), malnutrition is a significant factor in predicting cancer patients’ quality of life. Treatment modalities associated with cancer such as chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and surgery are associated with loss of appetite limiting nutritional status. According to (Ravasco 2019), cancer is the leading cause of mortality worldwide and is attributed to multiple interactions between genes and the environment. 40 % to 80% of all cancer patients experience malnutrition during the course of the disease. Cancer cachexia is a complex disease that results in metabolic alterations and systematic inflammation-causing loss of appetite resulting in malnutrition (Kim 2019; Ravasco 2019) This type of cancer is caused by malnutrition due to anorexia nervosa. Inflammation of the cytokinin in cancer cells causes alteration of proteins and lipids metabolism triggering degradation in the production of muscle proteins. Proteins are bodybuilding, and their degradation in the body causes malnutrition. According to (Mandato et al., 2017), “Skeletal muscle mass (SMM) is determined by the balance between protein synthesis and breakdown. Skeletal muscle loss (SML) is a major complication of liver cirrhosis (LC).” Liver cirrhosis is characterized by decreased energy and protein intake, inflammation, malabsorption, altered nutrient metabolism, and hormonal disturbances, contributing to malnutrition (Traub et al., 2021). Malnutrition in cirrhosis is a common aspect and is related to worse outcomes. The complicated outcomes due to cirrhosis are characterized...