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Does weight for height have prognostic significance in children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia?
J J Reilly1, I Odame, J H McColl
1Department of Human Nutrition, University of Glasgow, Yorkhill Hospitals, Scotland.
Insights
Nutritional status, measured by weight for height, impacts prognosis in childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). Children with lower weight for height scores face a higher risk of early relapse.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Oncology
- Hematology
- Nutritional Science
Background:
- Childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is a common pediatric cancer.
- Nutritional status is a critical factor in patient outcomes for various diseases.
- Weight for height is a readily available indicator of nutritional status.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the relationship between weight for height and prognosis in children diagnosed with ALL.
- To determine if weight for height is a predictive factor for relapse in childhood ALL.
Main Methods:
- Retrospective analysis of 78 children with ALL treated under the UKALL-X protocol.
- Weight for height was assessed using standard deviation scores.
- Survival analysis, including log-rank tests, was employed to evaluate the influence of weight for height on relapse and time to first relapse.
Main Results:
- A significant association was found between weight for height standard deviation scores and the time to first relapse in children with ALL (p = 0.012).
- Children with lower weight for height standard deviation scores exhibited an increased risk of early relapse.
- This suggests a potential link between nutritional status and disease recurrence in this cohort.
Conclusions:
- Weight for height appears to influence the outcome of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia.
- The underlying biological mechanisms connecting weight for height to ALL prognosis remain to be elucidated.
- Further large-scale prospective studies are warranted to confirm these findings and explore potential interventions.
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.
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