Bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) as a nutritional assessment tool in advanced colorectal cancer

6121 Background: Malnutrition is a strong predictor of morbidity and mortality in cancer. Serum albumin is one of the most commonly used single measures to assess nutritional status in clinical oncology. At our integrative treatment center, we use serum albumin in conjunction with bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) to assess nutritional status in cancer patients. BIA is a simple non-invasive technique to assess body composition, which provides an estimate of body cell mass. BIA however, has not been extensively validated in clinical cancer settings and little is known about the relationship between BIA and serum albumin. The goal of this study was to investigate if baseline body cell mass could provide useful information to detect malnutrition in advanced colorectal cancer. Methods: We evaluated a case series of 81 histologically confirmed stages III -IV colorectal cancer patients treated at Cancer Treatment Centers of America at Midwestern Regional Medical Center between January 2000 and March 2003. Percent ideal body cell mass (IBCM) was calculated for each patient by dividing the actual body cell mass by the ideal body cell mass specific for gender, height and weight. The percent IBCM was divided into three mutually exclusive tertiles (below 102.3%, 102.3 to 109.7%, and above 109.7%). The mean scores of serum albumin were compared across the three categories of percent IBCM using analysis of variance (ANOVA). The correlation between percent IBCM and serum albumin was studied using Pearson's correlation coefficient. Results: We found a modest statistically significant positive correlation between percent IBCM and serum albumin (r = 0.24; p = 0.037). ANOVA revealed statistically significant differences in the mean values of serum albumin across the 3 percent IBCM categories; the higher the percent IBCM, the greater the serum albumin levels (p = 0.044). Conclusions: These results suggest that BIA could be a useful tool in assessing nutritional status in patients with advanced colorectal cancer. Further studies need to focus on more extensive validation of this technique in the cancer treatment settings. No significant financial relationships to disclose.