Nutritional Status Assessment in Adult Patients Followed for Gastroenteropancreatic Neuroendocrine Tumors at Strasbourg University Hospital

Neuroendocrine tumors represent a heterogeneous group of tumors, of which gastrointestinal (gastroenteropancreatic) NETs are the most frequent.

Therapeutic management involves several approaches: control of any secretory syndrome and tumor control. Surgery is the first-line treatment for localized stages. When there is distant metastasis, various systemic treatments can be combined or administered sequentially (somatostatin analogs, everolimus, sunitinib, radioablation, targeted internal radiotherapy, cytotoxic chemotherapy). Gastrointestinal NETs are most often well-differentiated and slow-growing tumors with a median overall survival of up to 9 years (all sites combined), making comprehensive management of these patients all the more important.

In the context of cancer management, malnutrition has been shown to be associated with a poorer prognosis. Similarly, addressing malnutrition and improving nutritional parameters have been associated with improved prognosis.

The impact of nutritional status in patients with slow-growing tumors such as gastrointestinal neuroendocrine tumors (NETs) is less well understood but could be a modifiable factor for improving quality of life and treatment efficacy.

The research hypothesis is that nutritional status is associated with the prognosis of patients with gastrointestinal NETs.