comparison of growth impairment in pediatric patients with all, nhl treated with chemotherapy alone and chemoradiotherapy

introduction: acute lymphoblastic leukemia (all) and non hodgkin’s lymphoma(nhl) are the most common cancers in childhood and  adolescence. most children with all and nhl have long term survival (>80%). endocrinopathy is a common complication in pediatric cancers following the treatment (20-50% prevalence), in addition, cytotoxic chemotherapy and radiotherapy can influence side effect on growth parameters.   material and methods:  we evaluated growth percentiles in 50 children with all(n=25),nhl(n=25) . age of our patients was 3-17 years in remission period who received chemotherapy with (n=25) or without (n=25) head and neck radiation. patients with in less than 5th percentile height referred to assess the growth hormone deficiency (ghd) by insulin stimulating test.   results: six (12%) patients had less than 5th percentile height. from these patients 5 children (83.0% ) had isolated ghd. cortisol, acth, prolactin , igf-1and igf-bp3 were at normal value children underwent   head and neck radiotherapy in addition to chemotherapy. we didn’t find significant difference between 2 treatment group in exact–fisher test (p= 0.189 (. two patients (4.0%) had over weight in assessing bmi ( body mass index).   conclusion: we have some patients with short stature and ghd then it is important to pay more attention about growth in pediatric with malignancy.   key words: all, growth hormone deficiency, nhl, radiotherapy.