Sarcopenia, frailty and nutritional status in colorectal cancer
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Sarcopenia, frailty and nutritional status of colorectal cancer surgical patients and Urinary biomarkers: a feasibility study
IRAS ID
231694
Contact name
Jonathan Hewitt
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Cardiff University
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 11 months, 31 days
Research summary
It has been shown that people with a poor diet have a higher risk of complications after surgery. Therefore, it is important that doctors find out what a person has been eating in the weeks before their operation. It can be difficult to do this because it is usually based on what the patient remembers. By analysing a series of urine samples provided by the patient we can obtain information on the quality of the patient’s diet.
As well as looking at urine to see what the patients are eating, we will also use a a CT scan to see if people have something called Sarcopenia. This is a loss of muscle mass and is often seen in frail patients. Both frailty and Sarcopenia are linked to problems after surgery, so identifying these by doctors could lower complication rates in the future.
Finally, we will also examine the patients urine after surgery to see if there is any potential information which would indicate how well the surgery has gone. We will look at how well the people with Sarcopenia and people with Frailty fair compared with people without these conditions.
The study will look at 50 people over the age of 65 who are having elective surgery to treat cancer of the bowel (colorectal cancer). All these people would have a CT scan as part of their normal care and we will use this to see if they have sarcopenia. In addition to their normal treatment, the patients will complete a quick and simple frailty assessment and answer a questionnaire about what they have been eating recently. They will also be asked to give urine samples at different times leading up to and after their operation. Information will then be collected about any complications after their surgery.REC name
Wales REC 3
REC reference
19/WA/0190
Date of REC Opinion
10 Sep 2019
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion