Abstract: PURPOSE: To explore the long-term changes in nutritional status from preoperative to 3 months postoperatively in oral cancer patients, as well as the influencing factors, to provide guidance for clinical interventions. METHODS: A total of 269 patients with oral cancer admitted to the Northern Department of Oromaxillofacial Head and Neck Oncology, Shanghai Ninth People's Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine were selected. General questionnaire (demographic data, tumor-related data, anthropometric indicators, laboratory indicators) was used to understand the basic information of the patients. Nutrition status(PG-SGA scale) was measured before treatment, 1 and 3 months after finishing treatment. The data was processed by SPSS 26.0 software package for univariate and multivariate analysis. RESULTS: Among the 269 patients, 11 cases (4.1%) had a persistent good nutrition, 23 cases (8.5%) had a worsening nutrition, 78 cases (29%) alternated between good and poor nutrition, 111 cases (41.3%) had an improving nutrition, and 46 cases (17.1%) had a persistent malnutrition. Multiple logistic regression showed that patients with prolonged gastric tube retention time (OR=0.955, P=0.001), flap transplantation (OR=0.010, P=0.011), postoperative radiotherapy (OR=0.349, P=0.016), reduced upper arm muscle circumference (OR=1.669, P=0.007), and low albumin levels (OR=1.194, P=0.009) were more likely to develop persistent malnutrition. CONCLUSIONS: Unfavorable nutrition trajectories are prevalent among patients with oral cancer from pre-treatment to 3-month after treatment. Periodic nutrition assessment starting shortly after diagnosis is necessary to identify persistent malnutrition, especially among high-risk group, in order to take a series of targeted nutritional treatment timely.

Key words: Oral cancer, Nutrition assessment, Malnutrition, Trajectory, Influencing factor