Nutritional assessment of children with non-Hodgkinundefineds lymphoma during induced chemotherapy

Objective To evaluate the nutritional status of children with non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) during induction chemotherapy, and to understand the incidence of malnutrition, so as to give nutrition intervention in time. Methods From January 2017 to December 2018, 257 children with NHL were selected from the Center for Hematological Oncology, Peking Children′s Hospital Affiliated to Capital Medical University.Nutritional status and growth risk screening tools were used to assess the nutritional risk of the children, and the malnutrition was classified according to the height and body weight.The body mass, height and other anthropometric indexes, hemoglobin, prealbumin, albumin and other laboratory indexes were measured at the end of initial diagnosis and induction chemotherapy. Results There were 223 cases of moderate nutritional risk (86.8%) and 34 cases of high nutritional risk (13.2%). After treatment, the nutritional status of the children decreased: 13 cases of mild malnutrition, 1 case of moderate malnutrition, 4 cases of overweight and 3 cases of obesity before treatment; 32 cases of mild malnutrition, 9 cases of moderate malnutrition, 5 cases of severe malnutrition, 3 cases of overweight and 2 cases of obesity after treatment.Ninety-six patients received nutritional support (37.4%), including 15 cases of parenteral nutrition and 81 cases of enteral nutrition.The body weight ((29.50±15.13) kg before and after chemotherapy (27.60±14.30) kg) and body mass index ((17.2±3.28) kg/m2 before and (16.1±3.13) kg/m2 after chemotherapy) decreased significantly (t=12.404, 13.949, all P<0.01). Laboratory indicators except prealbumin were lower in hemoglobin ((109.00±15.78) g/L), albumin ((37.40±4.38) g/L), total lymphocyte ((1.58±1.26)×109/L) than before treatment (hemoglobin(117.90±21.06) g/L), (albumin (39.60±6.70) g/L), (total lymphocyte (2.98±2.87)×109/L)) (t=6.514, 4.834, 7.420, all P<0.01). Conclusion There is a high incidence of malnutrition in NHL children after initial treatment.Early screening of nutritional risk and optimizing nutritional treatment are one of the ways to improve the clinical efficacy of NHL children. Key words: Non-hodgkin′slymphoma; Nutritional assessment; Malnutrition; Pediatrics