Maintaining adequate nutrition through a combination of food and dietary supplementation was found to be a cost-effective strategy to achieving potentially optimum health and improved self-reported quality of life in cancer survivors, a review of NHANES data appearing in Cancers found.
 
According to the authors, led by Pharmavite LLC, cancer patients and survivors are at risk for malnutrition form both their disease and its treatment, and determining the cost-effectiveness of dietary supplementation in cancer survivors based on hospitalization rates, quality of life, cost of care, and mortality, was the primary aim.
 
To do this, the cost of supplements was derived from national pharmacy databases, with the average cost of hospitalization for supplement users and non-users also accounted for. From the NHANES participants’ records and real-life recorded dietary patterns, which were representative of the U.S. cancer survivor population, the authors found that hospitalization rates for users were 12%, compared to 21% for non-users.
 
The cancer survivors who used supplements also reported a higher quality of life (QOL) compared to survivors who did not use supplements, with an additional 0.48 QALY (quality adjusted life years, a unit of measure used in the prediction of both quality and duration of life after medical or surgical treatment).
 
Additionally, the cost analysis revealed that significant improvements for long-term health and well-being were achieved at the cost of a dollar per day for dietary supplement users, and after 6 years of supplement use, the benefit of lower hospitalization costs outweighed the costs of dietary supplementation. Further research, however, was needed to determine the effects of specific nutrient doses and supplementation on long-term health outcomes per cancer type.
 
The study also revealed that while 68% of cancer survivors reported using supplements within the last 30 days, between one and two thirds of cancer patients do not discuss their supplement use with their health care practitioner. Supplement use was estimated to cost $3650 over 10 years. Supplement use was linked to a lower probability of all-cause hospitalization and death in cancer survivors, regardless of whether they had been hospitalized in the past.
 
“While achieving adequate nutrition through food remains the gold standard, filling key nutrient gaps through food alone continues to present as a challenge for the larger population, let alone people whose cancer impacts the ability to consume and absorb nutrients, even after treatments subside,” Dr. Susan Mitmesser, VP of science and technology for Pharmavite, said. “This study reveals the need for dietary supplementation to be part of the post-treatment conversation between patients and their health care providers.”