Usefulness of Smartphone Application for Improving Nutritional Status of Pancreatic Cancer Patients

Malnutrition of hospitalized patients is reported in the range of 20-60% according to the definition and assessment method of malnutrition. In particular, the incidence of malnutrition in cancer patients is high up to 30-85%. Gastrointestinal disease is related to the digestion and absorption of nutrition therefore malnutrition rate of those patients is relatively high. Careful management of nutrition support is needed. Malnutrition causes dysfunction of the mesenteric membrane, immune function impairment, decreased function of major organs such as liver, kidney and heart and alteration in pharmacodynamics. It could also increase infection rate and complications of chemotherapy, delay recovery time, so that increase morbidity, mortality and length of hospital stay. Proper nutrition management reduces malnutrition prevalence and medical costs of hospitalized patient, therefore nutrition screening and evaluation is necessary. The recent spread of smartphones has made it easier to record and evaluate meals, which are used in the diet market for weight loss through meal records and feedback based on smartphone applications. This approach is also expected to benefit patients with gastrointestinal cancer, where proper nutrition and feedback are important. In particular, pancreatic cancer, the worst intractable cancer of mankind, is digestive cancer with the most severe muscle mass reduction and nutritional deterioration after diagnosis.