Benefit of percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy in patients undergoing definitive chemoradiotherapy for locally advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma

BACKGROUND AND AIM To evaluate the impact of percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy (PEG) tube on nutritional status, treatment-related toxicity, and treatment tolerance in patients with locally advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) who underwent chemoradiotherapy. PATIENTS AND METHODS We enrolled 133 consecutive non-metastatic NPC (III/IV stage) patients, who were treated with prophylactic PEG feeding before the initiation of concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CCRT) between June 1, 2010 and June 30, 2014. Meanwhile, another 133 non-PEG patients, who were matched for age, gender, and tumor, node, metastases stage, were selected as historical control cohort. Weight and nutritional status changes from pre-radiotherapy to the end of radiotherapy were evaluated, and treatment tolerance and related acute toxicities were analyzed as well. RESULTS We found that significantly more patients (91.73%) in the PEG group could finish two cycles of CCRT, when compared with those in the non-PEG group (57.89%) (P<0.001). We also indicated that more patients (50.38%) in the non-PEG group experienced weight loss of ≥5%, while the phenomenon was only found in 36.09% patients in the PEG group (P=0.019). In addition, the percentage of patients who lost ≥10% of their weight was similar in these two groups. Changes in albumin and prealbumin levels during radiotherapy in the non-PEG group were higher than those obtained for the PEG group with significant differences (P-values of 0.023 and <0.001, respectively). Furthermore, patients in the PEG group had significantly lower incidence of grade III acute mucositis than those in the non-PEG group (22.56% vs 36.84%, P=0.011). Tube-related complications occurred only in 14 (10.53%) patients in the PEG group, including incision infection of various degrees. CONCLUSION PEG and intensive nutrition support may help to minimize body weight loss, maintain nutritional status, and offer better treatment tolerance for patients with locally advanced NPC who underwent CCRT.