AUTHOR=Liang Qiuman , Wang Siyi , Wang Beibei , Hong Yanyan 

TITLE=Efficacy and safety of post-discharge oral nutritional supplements for patients with gastric cancer undergoing gastrectomy: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Nutrition

VOLUME=11

YEAR=2025

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/nutrition/articles/10.3389/fnut.2024.1488054

DOI=10.3389/fnut.2024.1488054

ISSN=2296-861X

ABSTRACT=<sec id="sec1"><title>Objectives</title><p>To report the first and largest systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials (RCT) to evaluated the efficacy and safety of post-discharge oral nutritional supplements (ONS) for patients with gastric cancer undergoing gastrectomy.</p></sec><sec id="sec2"><title>Design</title><p>Systematic review and meta-analysis.</p></sec><sec id="sec3"><title>Eligibility criteria for selecting studies</title><p>RCT which evaluated the efficacy and/or safety of post-discharge ONS for patients with gastric cancer undergoing gastrectomy.</p></sec><sec id="sec4"><title>Data sources</title><p>We conducted a systematic literature retrieval via PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, and Cochrane until April, 2023 for relevant RCTs.</p></sec><sec id="sec5"><title>Data analysis</title><p>Outcomes of meta-analysis included absolute change of body weight, % change of body weight, absolute change of body composition, absolute change of laboratory parameters and adverse events. All the relevant data were analyzed by Review Manager 5.4.1 and Stata 15.1.</p></sec><sec id="sec6"><title>Results</title><p>5 RCTs including 1,586 patients (804 in ONS group versus 782 in control group) were included for meta-analysis. The two groups were comparable in age, gender (male), weight at baseline, BMI at baseline, albumin at baseline, and hemoglobin at baseline. Meta-analysis revealed a significant lower absolute body weight loss (WMD: 0.75; 95% CI: 0.11, 1.40; <italic>p</italic> = 0.02) and % body weight loss (WMD: 1.15; 95% CI: 0.20, 2.11; <italic>p</italic> = 0.02) in the ONS group compared with the control (regular diet/dietary advice) group. Moreover, this study did not observe a significant difference between the two groups for adverse events rate (RR: 1.11; 95% CI: 0.81, 1.53; <italic>p</italic> = 0.52).</p></sec><sec id="sec7"><title>Conclusion</title><p>ONS was significantly effective and safe in improving postoperative weight loss for patients with gastric cancer undergoing gastrectomy.</p></sec><sec id="sec8"><title>Systematic review registration</title><p>Identifier, CRD42023414678, <ext-link xlink:href="https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/PROSPERO/" ext-link-type="uri" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/PROSPERO/</ext-link>.</p></sec>