Effects of probiotics combined with enteral nutrition on immune function and inflammatory response in postoperative patients with gastric cancer

Purpose: To explore the therapeutic effect of probiotics combined with enteral nutrition (EN) in postoperative patients with gastric cancer (GC). Methods: 140 GC patients were enrolled in this study and randomly assigned into the test group and the control group, with 70 patients in each group. Patients in the test group were treated with probiotics combined with EN, while those in the control group were treated with common EN. Patients' conditions were observed for 8 days. IgG, IgA, IgM, IL-6, IL8, TNF-alpha, hemoglobin, albumin, pre-albumin, time to relief of abdominal distension, time to first flatus, length of hospital stay and adverse events were recorded and analyzed. Results: The factors related to immune function in patients of the test group, such as IgG, IgA and IgM, were higher than those of the control group. Moreover, the improvements of inflammatory cytokines including IL-6, IL-8 and TNF-alpha in patients of the test group were better than those of the control group. However, no obvious difference was found in the nutritional status before and after treatment between the two groups (p>0.05). In the comparison of clinical symptoms, time to relief of abdominal distention and time to first flatus were both earlier in patients of the test group than in those of the control group (p=0.002, p=0.03, respectively). Additionally, the diarrhea caused by EN was also significantly less in the test group compared with the probiotics control (p=0.03). Conclusions: Probiotics combined with EN could improve the immune function and reduce the inflammatory response and the incidence of diarrhea in postoperative patients with gastric cancer.