Aims: Malnutrition and low muscle mass during cancer are associated with adverse cancer-related health outcomes. Dietary patterns, accounting for the complex interactive nature of foods, nutrients, and other dietary components, are an important modifiable factor which may be more effective at maintaining nutritional status and muscle health compared to nutrients in isolation. This scoping review examined evidence on the associations between dietary patterns and malnutrition, low muscle mass and sarcopenia, defined as low muscle mass, strength and/or impaired function, in adults with cancer.
Methods: Medline, Embase and CINAHL, were searched from inception until January 2021. Inclusion criteria were dietary patterns using data-driven or diet-quality methods and malnutrition, low muscle mass and sarcopenia. This scoping review was conducted in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analysis – Extension for Scoping Reviews.
Results: Five studies met the inclusion criteria. One study used data-driven methods to derive dietary patterns and four studies examined adherence to diet-quality methods. Adherence to diet-quality was assessed using a-priori dietary indexes, such as the Healthy Eating Index, in two studies and analysis of urinary ketones to estimate adherence with the ketogenic diet in two studies. All studies investigated muscle mass, omitting malnutrition and sarcopenia as key cancer-related outcomes. The limited literature revealed a beneficial impact on muscle mass with adherence to a ‘high-fat and fish’ diet. However, findings associated with diet-quality methods were mixed.
Conclusions: There is some evidence to suggest adherence to a ‘high-fat and fish’ diet may be associated with reduced risk of low muscle mass in people with cancer. The potential for certain dietary patterns during cancer treatment to improve cancer-related health outcomes is not well understood, highlighting a need for more research and the development of muscle-specific dietary patterns to improve nutritional status and muscle health for those with cancer.