Growing recognition of clinical nutrition’s importance
04 Sep 2018 | ESPEN
NutritionInsight spoke with Professor André Van Gossum, M.D, European Society for Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism (ESPEN) Chairman at the 40th ESPEN Congress in Madrid, Spain, about the growing importance of nutritional therapies for clinical patients.
This is Lisa Gan at ESPN Congress 2018 in Madrid, and I'm joined here by Andre van Gossen, who is the ESPEN chairman.
Now, ESPN is this year, celebrating its 40th anniversary.
Andre, would you be able to kind of guide us through some of the highlights or milestones of the Congress over the past four decades?
Yes, so it's true that we are extremely pleased to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the ESPN Congress.
So the European Society for Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism.
Has been launched 40 years ago, so it's a big anniversary and so we are extremely pleased that this year we have some big achievements.
So the role of this society is to promote scientific research, education, and good clinical practice in the field of medical nutrition.
But what is.
The reality is that since 40 years, the domain of clinical nutrition, also named medical nutrition, has been tremendously expanded because now when at the very beginning this society was mostly dedicated to parenteral nutrition and enteral nutrition.
But now in this society, obviously we are still talking about medical nutrition, but also we are talking about obesity, sarcopenia, some liver disease problems related to nutrition.
So the field and the domain of clinical nutrition is more and more large.
Also, what is new for the society, it used to be.
At the beginning, a European society, it's still a European society, but now we have 58 affiliated societies from Europe but also from around the world.
So that means that right now ESPN has really an international vision.
And so we are really pleased to collaborate with some colleagues from Korea, from Egypt, from the Philippines, from Brazil, from everywhere in the world to exchange some ideas.
One of the major achievements during the last few years was a collaboration in between the major PEN societies around the world.
That means Spen, Aspen, Ferrape, and Penza.
For making a consensus about the criteria for defining malnutrition, this is extremely important because we were talking about malnutrition since many, many years, but we were still lacking some worldwide accepted criteria.
And these criteria will be presented during the final, the final results of this consensus meeting will be presented during this meeting, and the paper will be released in clinical nutrition and in Japan just Monday, 3rd of September.
So it's a huge achievement for ESPN.
And also we are pleased for the way that we got this collaboration with other societies.
What is also new.
Is that Spain has developed some new type of guidelines.
Initially it was guidelines mostly dedicated to parenteral nutrition and nutrition, and now it's more dedicated to diseases.
So that means that we have no guidelines.
Nutrition in neurology, nutrition for cancer patients, nutrition in IBD, that means that seems much more appropriate to have such an approach.
Also, the role of SEN, and it's true since a few years, SPN is likely to promote research by providing some grants to young investigators.
It's also the role of a society such as the European Society for Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism to encourage young people to invest and to be enthusiasts in this field.
So we have really to encourage these people, but also to design good protocols.
Because it's not so easy to design good clinical protocols in the field of medical nutrition.
Why?
Because patients are suffering from different diseases.
Also, the medic the pharmaceutical.
Treatments are strongly involved since the last and improved since the last few years, so we have always to be in parallel with the new therapy.
Also, one of the main objectives of SSEN is education and so SSEN is also organized a symposium on a specific topic, some workshop, also a course for young people.
So globally scientific research.
Education and good clinical practice, that's the major objective of ESPN.
Mhm.
Now, forward looking, you were saying that the medical nutrition or clinical nutrition area is just growing, constantly.
How do you see that evolving?
Maybe what are some of the other areas we should be looking out for more?
The fact is that during many years only a few people, we have to admit that a few people were convinced that nutrition and nutrition support for the patients was extremely important.
It was a little bit difficult to convince colleagues, surgeons that nutrition was important.
Now we have data.
And also what we observed in clinical practice, in my own practice, since a few years, I think and I feel that my colleagues are much more concerned about the nutritional status of their patients.
And so even if they are not deeply involved in the field of medical nutrition, at least they have some concern.
And so more and more, many physicians, many surgeons in different disciplines, they are convinced that their patients should be adequately receiving nutritional support or medication or nutritional therapy.
Because now we can even talk about nutrition therapy, especially true for the oncologist.
Why?
Because now we have more and more new therapy, first line of chemotherapy, second line, third line.
That means that it's, it's excellent.
The patients may survive longer with a good quality of life, but for assuring quality of life and the tolerance to this therapy.
The patient needs to have a good nutritional status, so it's an example.
It's also true for surgery, for IBD patients, neurology patients, for older patients.
It's true for different types of patients, and more and more all the colleagues are really interested and convinced that nutrition intervention is important.
So we see a grow growing interaction between the medical world and the nutritional world to come.
Yes, so I'm sure that medical nutrition should be considered as a therapy.
Medical nutrition should be proposed in parallel with other treatments.
The patient should receive medical nutrition intervention before the surgery, for example, if he has any degree of malnutrition, he should be received nutrition support after the surgery, but also during chemotherapy, during radiotherapy for elderly people, and nutritional support should be always.
Combines with some physical activity, all the, the, all the clinical trials in any field are showing that, maintaining.
Physical exercise, it's extremely important for improving the effect of nutritional support.
If you combine both, you will improve the quality of your nutritional intervention because what we need is to protect proteins.
To protect muscle and to protect the function, that's the goal of nutrition.
Thank you very much.
