Prospective study of resting energy expenditure changes in head and neck cancer patients treated with chemoradiotherapy measured by indirect calorimetry.

Objective: The prevalence of malnutrition is high in patients with head and neck cancer due to tumor location and coadjuvant treatment. We studied changes in resting energy expenditure (REE) during treatment with chemoradiotherapy and compared the measured REE by indirect calorimetry (IC) with the value estimated by the Harris-Benedict (HB) formula.

Methods: Eighteen patients with head and neck cancer (15 men and 3 women, mean age 57 +/- 10.