title: Incidence of obesity does not appear to be increased after treatment of acute lymphoblastic leukemia in Brazilian children: role of leptin, insulin, and IGF-1.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  It has been reported that children treated for acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) in developed countries show an increased risk of overweight and obesity in adolescence and adulthood. However, the majority of patients who came to our observation in Brazil have low or normal body weight and only one of them was obese. Therefore, we have decided to assess some biochemical parameters possibly related to the intermediate metabolism and body composition in these patients.
  
  
  METHODS
  Two groups of subjects were studied: 27 survivors of childhood ALL (14.0 +/- 4.2 years old; post-treatment interval 8.6 +/- 3.9 years) (ALL group) and 17 healthy subjects (12.8 +/- 4 years old) (control group) selected on the basis of their kinship with the patients.
  
  
  RESULTS
  14/27 patients of the ALL group and 4/17 of the control group had leptin levels higher than the normal range for age and sex (p < 0.05). The leptin level was significantly higher in the ALL group (15.5 +/- 1.8 ng/ml) than in the control group (10.7 +/- 2 ng/ml) (p < 0.05). When adjusted by sex, BMI z-score, and age, the level of leptin in patients of the ALL group was 8.5 higher than in subjects of the control group (p = 0.006). Leptin/insulin correlation in the ALL group was 0.08 and in the control group it was +0.585 (p < 0.05).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The data indicate the presence of alterations in the homeostatic regulatory mechanisms controlling body weight in Brazilian patients treated for ALL in childhood, still, it did not lead to obesity in the absence of favorable environmental conditions.
authors.affiliation: Department of Endocrinology, University of Brasília, Brasília, Brazil.
authors.forename: Carla
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Papadia
authors.forename: Luciana A
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: Naves
authors.forename: Sandra S S
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Costa
authors.forename: Janete A R
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Vaz
authors.forename: Lucilia
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Domingues
authors.forename: Luiz Augusto
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: Casulari
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D015992:Body Mass Index; D001938:Brazil; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D007328:Insulin / Q000097:blood / Q000502:physiology*; D007334:Insulin-Like Growth Factor I / Q000032:analysis / Q000502:physiology*; D020738:Leptin / Q000097:blood / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D009765:Obesity / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology; D054198:Precursor Cell Lymphoblastic Leukemia-Lymphoma / Q000150:complications / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000628:therapy*; D049629:Waist-Hip Ratio
chemical_list: D007328:Insulin; D020738:Leptin; D007334:Insulin-Like Growth Factor I