title: Nutritional profile of pediatric cancer patients at Cancer Institute, Chennai.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Malnutrition is widely prevalent in the pediatric population in India. There is paucity of data on the prevalence of malnutrition in pediatric cancer patients and the impact of cancer treatment on nutritional status of Indian children.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The study was conducted to look at the prevalence of malnutrition and assess the impact of treatment on nutritional status of pediatric cancer patients.
  
  
  METHODS
  This was a retrospective study.
  
  
  METHODS
  Data on the weight of pediatric cancer patients <16 years of age treated at Cancer Institute, Chennai, from January 2013 to May 2014 were analyzed at systematic time points in therapy. Patients' weight were plotted on the Centre for Disease Control (CDC) growth charts. Patients were defined to be undernourished if their weight for age was ≤3rd centile in CDC growth charts and obese if their weight for age was ≥97th centile on CDC growth charts.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 295 patient case records were analyzed. Acute lymphoblastic leukemia was the most common malignancy. At diagnosis, under-nutrition was seen in 44% patients, this increased to 46% midway during treatment (end of induction in acute leukemia and completion of 50% of planned treatment in solid tumors) and decreased to 27% at the end of treatment (beginning of maintenance in acute leukemia and completion of planned treatment in solid tumors) (P = 0.0005). There was no significant difference in nutritional status between patients with hematological malignancies and solid tumors (P = 0.8).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Under-nutrition is present in close to half of the pediatric cancer patients presenting to our institute. Active nutritional intervention and education were able to significantly reduce the prevalence of under-nutrition in patients at the end of treatment.
authors: Department of Medical Oncology, Cancer Institute, Adyar, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India.
authors: V
authors: V
authors: Radhakrishnan
authors: P
authors: P
authors: Ganesan
authors: R
authors: R
authors: Rajendranath
authors: T S
authors: TS
authors: Ganesan
authors: T G
authors: TG
authors: Sagar
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001835:Body Weight; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007194:India / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D044342:Malnutrition / Q000150:complications / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000473:pathology / Q000628:therapy; D009752:Nutritional Status; D054198:Precursor Cell Lymphoblastic Leukemia-Lymphoma / Q000150:complications / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000473:pathology / Q000628:therapy