Early Post-Operative Enteral Feeding in Patients With Advanced Epithelial Ovarian Cancer

Early Post-Operative Enteral Feeding in Patients With Advanced Epithelial Ovarian Cancer

Ovarian cancer patients are often at risk of malnutrition because of weight loss, lack of appetite and reduced food intake. Being malnourished can contribute to the incidence and severity of cancer treatment side effects and increase the risk of infection. Currently patients with advanced ovarian cancer do not receive early nutrition using a feeding tube.

The purpose of this study is to compare enteral nutrition along with standard post-surgery care against current standard post-operative care alone. This study will see if early nutrition using a feeding tube has an impact on length of hospital admission, recovery from surgery, complications from surgery, nutritional status and ultimately a reduction in treatment costs in people with Advanced Epithelial Ovarian Cancer (EOC). Primary Peritoneal Cancer (PPC) or Fallopian Tube Cancer. Nutritional support has been shown to ;

• Prevent and treat under-nutrition,
• Enhance anti-tumour treatment effects,
• Reduce adverse effects of anti-tumour therapies,
• Improve quality of life.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Patients requiring planned primary surgery for suspected or histologically proven advanced ovarian, primary peritoneal cancer or fallopian tube cancer.
• Signs of moderate or severe malnutrition - Patient Generated Subjective Global Assessment (PG-SGA) Category B or C and/or a total numerical score of 4 or more in the PG-SGA
• Medically fit for primary surgery
• Signed written informed consent
• Females aged 18 years or older

Exclusion Criteria:

• Other histological type than ovarian cancer, peritoneal cancer or fallopian tube cancer
• Recurrent ovarian cancer, peritoneal or fallopian tube cancer
• Pre-existing contraindications to enteral nutrition such as ileus, gastrointestinal ischemia, bilious or persistent vomiting, or mechanical obstruction
• Positive urine pregnancy test
• Unfit for surgery; serious concomitant systemic disorders incompatible with the study (at the discretion of the investigator)
• Participation in other clinical trials that may have an impact on the outcomes of this trial.