Evaluation of kidney dysfunction in childhood cancer survivors

The major increase in the survival rate among children with cancer is due to improvement in the diagnosis and treatment. Despite this increase, childhood cancer survivors (CCS) are at high risk of developing late complications such as nephrotoxicity due to chemotherapy. So, we aimed to detect early subclinical kidney dysfunction among CCS.

This cross-sectional study was implemented on 52 survivors of childhood cancer recruited from Pediatric Oncology Unit, Menoufia University. Laboratory evaluations for each participant, including complete blood count, serum urea, creatinine, urinary protein, urinary calcium, uric acid, and serum cystatin C and urinary Neutrophil Gelatinase Associated Lipocalin (UrNGAL) by ELISA were obtained.

Estimated GFR was decreased in 23.1% of cases, with elevated serum cystatin C, UrNGAL and UrNGAL/Cr. There was a significant increase of Uprotein/Cr, UCa/Cr, UACR (p = 0.02), UrNGAL and UrNGAL/Cr (P < 0.001) in patients with tubular dysfunction compared without tubular dysfunction. There was a significant difference between two groups regarding cisplatin (P = 0.03) and high-dose methotrexate chemotherapy (p = 0.04). The AUCs for detecting kidney tubular dysfunction by UrNGAL and UrNGAL/Cr were 0.807 and 0.747.

A significant tubular dysfunction among childhood cancer survivors receiving chemotherapy as cisplatin and high-dose methotrexate.

Detection of kidney dysfunction mainly tubular in childhood cancer survivors after finishing chemotherapy. Urinary NGAL is a good predictor for detection of tubular dysfunction in childhood cancer survivors after finishing chemotherapy.