Nutritional Status of Children with Cancer at the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital, Ituku/Ozalla, Enugu, Nigeria

Malnutrition is a recognized co-morbidity in cancer patients and is usually related to the type and extent of tumor. It develops mainly during the intensive phase of treatment of the disease but may be obvious or apparent at diagnosis. Nutritional support, therefore, is an important aspect of management as poor nutrition may be associated with poor prognosis [1,2]. Prevalence of malnutrition ranges from <10% in standard risk acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) to 50% in advanced neuroblastoma [3-5]. Israels and co-workers [6] in Malawi reported that among children with cancer, 44.5% were stunted, 39.8% were underweight, 55.1% had an arm muscle area (AMA) for age below the 5th percentile while 59.3% had both mid upper arm circumference (MUAC) and triceps skin fold thickness (TSFT) below the 5th percentile. Also in Guatemala, Sala et al. [2] reported 68% prevalence of malnutrition in cancer patients with 46% of them severely malnourished.