Nutritonal Status Of Pediatric Cancer Patients In Iran: A Clinical Audit

This study assess the nutritional status of outpatient cancer children referred to the hematologyand oncology clinic at Doctor Sheikh Hospital, a pediatric teaching hospital in Mashhad, Iran. Weperformed a clinical audit. Nutritional status was assessed by anthropometric indices. STRONGkidstool was applied for screening risk of malnutrition. A total of 61 pediatric cancer patients wereassessed. 77 percent of patients were male (47 patients) and the mean age was 8.4 years (Range:6month to18 years). Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) (84.7%) and Wilms tumor (26.6%) was themost prevalent cancer among hematologic and solid tumors respectively. Results showed that 26.2%of patients had malnutrition by BMI for age z-score index (underweight), 24.5% by weight for height(WFH) index (wasting) and 21.3% by HFA index (stunting). The prevalence of underweight, wastingand stunting was higher among patients with solid tumors than patients with hematologicalmalignancies. However, results showed that the prevalence of malnutrition was not statisticallysignificant between the two groups.The STRONGkids classified 34.4% of patients as moderate risk,and 65.6% as high risk of malnutrition. Patients with solid tumors were more in high risk group thanpatients with hematological malignancy (40% vs 32.6%) although it was not statistically significant(p> 0.05). Malnutrition was prevalent among pediatric cancer patients in this study. So appropriatenutritional screening and support plans should be implemented for improving the nutritionalstatus of these children.