Objective  To analyze nutritional status and influencing factors of patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) during chemoradiotherapy.

Methods  We reviewed retrospectively the clinical data of 140 NPC patients. PG-SGA questionnaire, the anthropometry measurements, hematological indexes, side-effects of chemoradiotherapy and quality of life were used to evaluate nutritional status of NPC patients. Multivariate Logistic regression model was used to analyze the main influence factors for malnutrition of NPC patients.

Results  During chemoradiotherapy, 80.7% of the NPC patients had severe malnutrition, 95.0% lost weight, 39.3% lost weight more than 10%. Prealbumin declined significantly at the 2nd week of radiotherapy, and the rate of anemia was 54.3% at the end of radiotherapy. The score of overall QOL was only 38.9 at the end of radiotherapy. Clinical stages, weight loss during chemoradiotherapy, prealbumin, anemia, oral mucositis, overall QOL and economic status were influence factors for malnutrition of NPC patients (all P < 0.05).

Conclusion  The incidence of malnutrition is high in NPC patients during chemoradiotherapy. Clinical stages, weight loss during chemoradiotherapy, anemia, oral mucositis and financial difficulty are the independent risk factors for the malnutrition of NPC patients. Prealbumin and overall QOL are the independent protective factors for the malnutrition of NPC patients.