The public defence will be held as a video conference over Zoom.
The defence will follow regular procedure as far as possible, hence it will be open to the public and the audience can ask ex auditorio questions when invited to do so.
Click here to participate in the public defence
Due to copyright reasons, an electronic copy of the thesis must be ordered from the faculty. In order for the faculty to have time to process the order, it must be received by the faculty no later than 2 days prior to the public defence. Orders received later than 2 days before the defence will not be processed. Inquiries regarding the thesis after the public defence must be addressed to the candidate.
Digital Trial Lecture - time and place
Adjudication committee
- First opponent: Professor Henrik Sengeløv, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
- Second opponent: Professor Mary Jarden, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
- Third member and chair of the evaluation committee: Professor Anne Marit Mengshoel, Institute of Health and Society, University of Oslo
Chair of defence
Associate Professor Truls Hauge, Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo
Principal supervisor
Professor Per Ole Iversen, Institute of Basic Medical Sciences, University of Oslo
Summary
Allogeneic stem cell transplantation involves transferring the stem cells from a donor to the patient after high-intensity chemotherapy or radiation. This treatment is commonly used in patients with malignant blood disease and may cause eating problems requiring nutritional support. Nutritional support could be administered via a central venous catheter (parenteral) and via a feeding tube (enteral). There is no agreement on food recommendations, the optimal time point to start nutritional support, the dose of nutritional support, and optimal administration route. Finally, it is not known if nutritional intervention can improve quality of life and clinical outcomes in recipients of allogeneic stem cell transplantation.
The aims of the thesis were to assess the effect of optimized energy and protein intake preferably by the enteral route on quality of life and clinical outcomes in recipients of allogeneic stem cell transplantation. Patients were randomized to receive individually adjusted energy and protein intake combined with tube feeding supplemented with parenteral feeding if needed (intervention:=57), or regular hospital food and a standard dose of parenteral nutrition (controls:=60). We found no effect of the nutritional intervention on global quality of life, oral mucositis, acute graft-versus-host disease and other clinical outcomes at 3 months. Body composition during 1-year follow-up was the same in both groups. In the pooled groups, 1-year mortality was associated with weight gain (i.e. fluid retention). Loss of microbial diversity at 3 weeks was associated with 1-year mortality in both groups.
In conclusion, optimized energy and protein intake had no effect on quality of life and clinical outcomes in recipients of allogeneic stem cell transplantation.
Additional information
contact the research support staff