The study population will be adult HNC patients receiving radiotherapy and chemotherapy treatment. The targeted number of subjects is 116 patients (58 subjects in each arm). Participants will be randomly assigned to receive standard medical nutrition therapy (individualized dietary assessment and counselling, and standard nutrition supplementation as necessary) or standard medical nutrition therapy with high energy, high protein, immunonutrient-enriched oral nutrition supplementation. Immunonutrition supplementation will begin 1 week prior to cancer treatment and continued throughout the cancer treatment, and to be taken in 3 servings/day. The study involves interviewing of subjects for dietary and nutrition assessment; measurement of weight, body composition, handgrip strength; and data collection from subjects' medical records.
This is a prospective, randomized, open-label intervention study to evaluate the effectiveness of immunonutrition supplementation in head and neck cancer (HNC) patients during cancer treatment.