Malnutrition risk prior to hematopoietic stem cell transplantation predicts mortality in adults

Patients with hematological malignancies have a high risk of developing malnutrition. Few data are currently available that illustrate the impact of the patients’ nutritional status prior to HSCT on their outcome. The aim of this study was to investigate the association between the patients’ malnutrition status prior to receiving autologous or allogeneic HSCT and mortality in adults with hematological malignancies. We conducted a retrospective cohort study including 341 patients. Survival curves and Cox proportional-hazards models were used to reveal whether malnutrition risk served as a predictor for the overall mortality and non-relapse mortality. The survival curves revealed that patients with malnutrition risk prior to HSCT had an increased risk of death during the 1-year follow-up period (overall mortality as well as non-relapse mortality). This result was confirmed by the Cox regression models, which showed a mortality risk that is more than two times higher in patients at risk of malnutrition. In allogeneic transplant patients, the impact of malnutrition risk on mortality was even higher. Our conclusions presuppose that nutrition is an important factor during the holistic treatment of HSCT patients by all healthcare professionals involved in the care of this patient group. Future studies should be carried out to examine how and whether different nutritional interventions effectively improve the nutritional status of this patient group.