Does weight for height have prognostic significance in children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia?

Purpose: We tested the hypothesis that weight for height, a simple index of nutritional status, is related to prognosis in childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL).

Patients and methods: The study population was composed of 78 children with ALL tested at one U.K. center on the same protocol (UKALL-X). Outcome measures were relapse/no relapse and time to first relapse. Influence of weight for height, expressed as standard deviation scores, was tested using survival analysis in a retrospective design.

Results: The weight-for-height standard deviation score had a significant influence on time until first relapse (log ranks test, p = 0.012), with the highest risk of early relapse in children at the lower end of the weight-for-height distribution.

Conclusions: The results suggest that weight for height does have an influence on outcome in ALL, but the mechanism is unclear and the finding requires confirmation by larger scale prospective studies.