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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2013 Dec 15.
Published in final edited form as: Pediatr Blood Cancer. 2012 Sep 4;59(7):1160–1167. doi: 10.1002/pbc.24272

Table I.

Factors Associated with High Nutritional Risk in Children with Cancer Undergoing Chemotherapy

High risk of malnutrition High risk of adiposity
Tumor type Presentation with and/or undergoing treatment for:

  • Solid tumors in advanced stages

    • Neuroblastoma

    • Wilms tumor

    • Rhabdomyosarcoma

  • Advanced-stage Ewing sarcoma

  • Multiple relapsed and some high-risk leukemias

  • Head and neck tumors

  • Diencephalic tumors

  • Post–stem cell transplantation (graft vs. host disease)

 Presentation with and/or undergoing treatment for:

  • Central nervous system tumors

    • Craniopharyngioma

    • Medulloblastoma

    • Astrocytoma

    Undergoing treatment for:

  • Acute lymphoblastic leukemia

  • Ependymoma

  • Nasopharynx carcinoma

  • Sarcoma

  • Lymphoma

  • Disseminated testicular cancer
Treatment modality

  • Irradiation to the gastrointestinal tract

  • Major abdominal surgery

  • Bone marrow transplantation

  • Intense frequent intervals (≤3 weeks) of chemotherapy in the absence of corticosteroids

  • Extensive brain surgery

  • High-dose cranial/craniospinal radiotherapy

  • Total body or abdominal radiotherapy

  • Prolonged corticosteroid therapy with large doses, or other drugs that increase body fat stores
Patient demographics

  • Infancy

  • Low socioeconomic status

  • Lack of family or health support system

  • Brain tumors70,79

    • Female

    • Greater than average BMI at diagnosis

  • ALL59

    • Age less than 10 yr at diagnosis

    • Hispanic

    • Male