Special Nutrition Formulas Before and After Cancer Surgery: What the Evidence Shows

This review looks at “immunonutrition” — nutritional formulas enriched with ingredients like arginine, omega-3 fatty acids, glutamine, and nucleotides — given to patients before and/or after surgery for gastrointestinal cancers (such as stomach, colon, or esophageal cancer). Surgery patients with these cancers often deal with malnutrition, inflammation, weakened immune function, and gut barrier issues, all of which can raise the risk of infections and slow recovery after an operation.

The authors summarize existing studies and find the most reliable benefit is a reduction in postoperative infections, particularly among patients who are nutritionally at-risk and those having major upper GI surgery. However, effects on hospital stay length, wound healing, and overall short-term recovery were inconsistent, varying by tumor location, patient nutritional status, type of surgery, formula used, and timing of supplementation.

Importantly, the review notes that evidence on whether immunonutrition affects mortality, cancer recurrence, or long-term survival remains limited and mixed. The authors conclude that this approach should be used selectively for higher-risk surgical patients rather than as a routine, one-size-fits-all strategy, and call for better-designed future studies.