• Intervention
    Is there a relationship between a patient’s low residue diet to improve tolerance and support recovery from anticancer therapy, (i.e., chemotherapy, radiation therapy), and the reduction of complications associated with treatment in patients with documented chronic radiation enteritis?
    • Conclusion

      A lack of the following: a standardized definition of a low-residue/GI soft/low fiber diet, high-quality randomized controlled trials utilizing the low-residue diet as an intervention, difficulties in comparability of studies caused by the use of differing patient populations, different disease states, and different diets, and strong research design in the available studies, makes it difficult to provide a straight-forward conclusion about the use of a low residue diet to reduce the complications associated with documented chronic radiation enteritis in cancer patients who have undergone this type of treatment.  More research is needed to define the low-residue diet and to test its efficacy in cancer treatment.

    • Grade: III
      • Grade I means there is Good/Strong evidence supporting the statement;
      • Grade II is Fair;
      • Grade III is Limited/Weak;
      • Grade IV is Expert Opinion Only;
      • Grade V is Not Assignable.
      • High (A) means we are very confident that the true effect lies close to that of the estimate of the effect;
      • Moderate (B) means we are moderately confident in the effect estimate;
      • Low (C) means our confidence in the effect estimate is limited;
      • Very Low (D) means we have very little confidence in the effect estimate.
      • Ungraded means a grade is not assignable.
    • Search Plan and Results: Low Residue and Symptoms/Complications 2005
       
    Is there a relationship between a patient’s low-residue diet to reduce symptoms and the reduction of symptoms associated with cancer in pancreatic cancer patients?
    • Conclusion

      No studies were identified that address the question directly, however, in one negative quality retrospective chart review, patients with advanced pancreatic cancer who had received diet instruction from an RD on a “GI/Soft” diet developed fewer bowel obstructions than patients who did not receive diet instruction. The poor study design and lack of definition of terms and diet composition limit the usefulness of study results.

       

    • Grade: V
      • Grade I means there is Good/Strong evidence supporting the statement;
      • Grade II is Fair;
      • Grade III is Limited/Weak;
      • Grade IV is Expert Opinion Only;
      • Grade V is Not Assignable.
      • High (A) means we are very confident that the true effect lies close to that of the estimate of the effect;
      • Moderate (B) means we are moderately confident in the effect estimate;
      • Low (C) means our confidence in the effect estimate is limited;
      • Very Low (D) means we have very little confidence in the effect estimate.
      • Ungraded means a grade is not assignable.
    • Search Plan and Results: Low Residue and Symptoms/Complications 2005