Body Composition Changes, Nutritional Status and Optimizing Preoperative Metabolic Condition in Patients with Colorectal Cancer

Dear Colleagues,

A lifestyle of chronic positive energy balance results in too much fat accumulation and the development of chronic diseases like hypertension, cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, and colorectal cancer. Over 50% of people have one disease and 35% have two or more chronic diseases. Multi-morbidity and polypharmacy are common in colorectal cancer, putting additional strain on the care system and negatively influencing outcomes. Current understanding of the pathobiology of chronic diseases and cancer increasingly points to a chronic proinflammatory systemic state induced by visceral obesity. Low muscle mass and muscle quality accompany visceral obesity with an additional negative impact on surgical and oncological outcomes. The rapid time sequence between diagnosis and surgical resection allows for little possibility for intervention to improve metabolic responses. How can we improve the preoperative and postoperative conditions of these patients?

This Special Issue will focus on characterizing the metabolic–nutritional status in colorectal cancer patients in relation to changes in body composition. An additional focus lies upon the question of whether nutritional intervention alone or in combination with a prehabilitation program that focuses on improving muscle strength will change metabolic inflammatory responses and early and long-term outcomes in colorectal cancer patients.

Dr. Alexander P. J. Houdijk
Guest Editor

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• body composition
• visceral obesity
• inflammation
• muscle
• colorectal cancer
• nutritional status
• nutritional intervention
• prehabilitation