NCT05816369

Oral Nutritional Supplement Preferences in Patients With Cancer

Taste and Smell Alterations and Oral Nutritional Supplement (ONS) Preferences in Patients With Cancer

• Status: Unknown
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 50 (estimated)
• Sponsor: University of Bergen · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Not accepted

Summary

Patients diagnosed with cancer have a particularly high risk of developing malnutrition due to the disease itself and due to symptoms of cancer treatments that can affect food intake such as reduced appetite, nausea, fatigue, and alterations in taste and smell. Nutritional treatment is essential in the prevention and treatment of malnutrition. Oral nutritional supplements (ONS) are often recommended to cancer patients who need to increase their nutritional intake and are unable to meet their nutritional requirements by consumption of normal food alone. However, patient compliance with ONS depends on sensory acceptability of such products. Therefore, the objective of this study is to investigate preferences of sensory characteristics of ONS among cancer patients. Additionally, possible associations between taste and smell alterations and dietary intake, malnutrition risk, and quality of life will be investigated. The results from this study will optimize recommendations of ONS in the clinical setting and encourage new efforts among manufacturers in developing acceptable sensory characteristics of ONS to cancer patients. Findings from this study will contribute to improving nutritional treatment for cancer patients.

Conditions

• Neoplasms
• Malnutrition

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
OTHER	Taste session of five ONS flavors	Patients will taste a small sample (30 mL) of five ONS flavors and report their taste experiences by completing questionnaires of each flavor during the taste session. Participants will also complete a malnutrition risk screening (MST), a three-day food diary, questionnaires of self-reported taste and smell changes (TSS), and quality of life (RAND-36).

Timeline

• Start date: 2023-04-11
• Primary completion: 2023-12-30
• Completion: 2024-09-30
• First posted: 2023-04-18
• Last updated: 2023-12-04

Locations

1 site across 1 country: Norway