Nutritional status at diagnosis is related to clinical outcomes in children and adolescents with cancer: a perspective from Central America.

Background: The prevalence of malnutrition in children may exceed 50% in countries with limited resources. The aims of this study were to assess nutritional status at diagnosis in children and adolescents with cancer, and to correlate it with clinical outcomes in the Spanish speaking countries of Central America that formed the AHOPCA (Asociacion de Hemato-Oncologia Pediatrica de Centro America) consortium.

Methods: Patients aged 1-18 years, diagnosed with cancer between 1st October 2004 and 30th September 2007, were eligible for study.

Nutritional status of children during treatment for acute lymphoblastic leukemia in the Central American Pediatric Hematology Oncology Association (AHOPCA): preliminary data from Guatemala.

Preliminary data reveal some degree of nutritional depletion in up to 54% of newly diagnosed children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia in Guatemala. Deaths due to abandonment of therapy and treatment failure were more common in under-nourished than in well-nourished children when nutritional status was determined by arm anthropometry (mid upper arm circumference and triceps skin fold thickness). Given that these measures are less subject to variation between racial/ethnic groups than is the case with height and weight, it is recommended that arm anthropometry become part of the standard of care for children with cancer in developing countries.