Gastric cancer is a catabolic disease, where the tu- mor acts consuming the nutritional reserves of the pa- tient, leading to nutritional loss and poor clinical prog- nosis.The purpose of this study was to evaluate the pre-surgical nutritional intervention through oral nutri- tional therapy in patients with gastric cancer admitted to a public hospital in the city of Santos, Sao Paulo, Brazil. Subjective global assessment was applied to specific cancer patients. Supplementation immunomo- dulatory lasted on average 11 days during the surgery and predecessor dosage used was 2 days units.
Sample of 15 elderly patients, and 40% in baseline nu- tritional status depleted. After the intervention, only 20% lost weight. There was improvement in the ave- rage serum albumin (2.6 g / dl at baseline and 2.9 g / dl after supplementation) and more than half the sam- ple (60%) showed no postoperative complications.
Nutrition immunomodulatory proved beneficial, contri- buting to maintenance and / or improvement in nutri- tional status, an important factor in reducing postope- rative complications.