Taste disorders during chemotherapy - TASTE Trial - Effectivity of a taste and smell training and structured, individual intervention program to improve taste perception of patients undergoing chemotherapy
- Conditions
- Malignant neoplasmsC00-C97
- Registration Number
- DRKS00012501
- Lead Sponsor
- niversitätsklinikum Hamburg-Eppendorf
- Brief Summary
Purpose: Two-thirds of cancer patients report taste disorders during and after chemotherapy. Taste disorders impact on nutritional status which is highly relevant for treatment efficacy and overall prognosis. Improvement of taste disorder is of particular importance for cancer patients' outcomes, thus the TASTE trial was conducted to improve taste disorders with a taste and smell training. Methods: In this trial, patients undergoing chemotherapy were screened for taste disorders. Subsequently, patients were allocated based on the detection of taste disorders (=8 taste strips points) to an intervention group with a taste and smell training at baseline and week 3-5 or were only followed up, if no taste disorder was detected (=9 taste strips points) (non-intervention group). At baseline, all patients received a nutritional counseling. The primary endpoint was the minimal clinically relevant improvement of taste strips score by 2 taste strips points in at least 50% of the patients with taste disorders. Results: The trial included 62 patients (48 women [77%], 14 male [23%], age 54.5±11.6 years) who had gastrointestinal (n=29), breast (n=31), or lung cancer (n=2). Taste disorders were more frequent in gastrointestinal than in breast cancer patients. Out of 62 patients screened, 30 patients showed taste disorders. The primary endpoint was met with 92% (n=23 of 25) of the patients completing the intervention. In the intervention group, the patients' taste significantly improved from baseline (median taste strips: 7.0 points) to week 12 (median taste strips: 10.0 points) (P=0.001). Patients of the non-intervention group who completed the reassessment (n=27 of 32) experienced no change in taste perception in the 3-month follow-up (P=0.897). Conclusion: Intensified nutritional counseling with taste and smell training may improve taste perception of patients undergoing chemotherapy. A confirmatory randomized trial is planned.
- Detailed Description
Not available
Recruitment & Eligibility
- Status
- Complete
- Sex
- All
- Target Recruitment
- 62
patients undergoing chemotherapy
(tumor localisation: breast, lung, esophagus, pancreas, stomach and intestine)
- age = 18 years
- prior written consent
- presence of a genetic metabolic disorder
- treatment/ previous treatment of an eating disorder (anorexia, bulimia, binge eating)
- parenteral nutrition or supplemental enteral nutrition (food via PEG or PEJ, high calorie drinking food such as Fresubin or Fortimel) undergoing therapy for tumor cachexia
- irradiation in the head/ neck area
- pregnancy
Study & Design
- Study Type
- interventional
- Study Design
- Not specified
- Primary Outcome Measures
Name Time Method The primary endpoint is the improvement of objective taste by clinically relevant 2 taste strip points in at least 50% of the patients of the intervention group
- Secondary Outcome Measures
Name Time Method - Improvement of the objective taste category salty, sweet, sour and bitter (measured by taste strip)<br>- Improvement of subjective taste perception (measured by anamnesis sheet of Prof. T. Hummel)<br>- Feasibility and acceptance of taste and smell training<br>- Recording the quality of life of all study patients