Nutritional status at the moment of diagnosis in childhood cancer patients.

INTRODUCTION: Children with a neoplastic disease are highly susceptible to malnutrition. The main objective of the study was to assess the frequency of undernourishment and obesity at the time of the diagnosis of the neoplastic disease at children.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study included 734 patients (58% males) at the age 1-20,25, with the diagnosis of neoplasm in the years 1986-2014. The patients were divided into groups depending on the type of the diagnosis: 1) ALL, 2) ANLL, 3) HL, 4) NHL, 5) NBL, 6) Wilms tumor, 7) mesenchymal malignant tumor. The BMI SDS and the height SDS were evaluated. The difference in the incidence of disorders in each group was examined.

RESULTS: In the study group at the time of the diagnosis 21.5% of patients were undernourished while 13.8% presented were overweight. Patients in the ALL group were overweight more often than the rest of the study group (RR 1.82, CI 95%1.26-2.63, p=0.002) - 18.6% of them were overweight. However, children with mesenchymal malignant tumor were less susceptible to overweight than the rest of the patients (RR 0.36, CI 95%0.15-0.87, p=0.021) - only 5.4% of them were overweight. Girls with ALL were malnourished more often than other patients (RR 1.72, CI 95%1.08-2.75, p=0.03). There were no significant differences in the malnutrition/obesity frequency in other neoplasms groups.

SUMMARY: ALL patients are less susceptible to underweight than the patients with the solid tumor. Moreover, the high incidence of overweight in children with ALL is noteworthy.