The results of the present study indicate that cancer and its treatment did not have any long-lasting effect on serum albumin, total cholesterol, retinol, zinc and hemoglobin. Majority of subjects had low serum retinol suggestive of depleted liver reserves. The deficient serum retinol levels (< than 0.6989 micromol/l, or 20 microg/dl) in at least 75% of the patients and controls probably reflect poor dietary intake. A higher percentage of patients with low serum retinol levels may also be attributed to the possibility of urinary losses of retinol that occur during episodes of infection while on immunosuppressive anti-cancer drug therapy.
Background: Obesity in pediatric ALL survivors is a well recognized late effect. Hence the present study examines the BMI-for-age of Indian childhood ALL and NHL survivors. Method: A retrospective study of 118 ALL/NHL survivors and 138 age sex matched controls was carried out. From the recorded heights and weights body mass index (BMI) was computed. The survivor data was compared with 138 controls from the data set collected by investigators previously. Results: 82.8% of patients had BMI-for-age in 5th -84th percentile (healthy) at time of diagnosis and at inclusion in the study. The distribution of survivors and controls according to the BMI percentiles was not significant. However, the mean BMI-for-age for younger patients (3 to 12 years) was significantly higher than mean BMI-for-age of matched controls. Distribution of data by time elapsed from therapy was significant. Overweight/obesity was observed among the survivors who were off therapy for two years with increase in after four years post-therapy. Conclusion: Our preliminary study indicates late effects of therapy and points to the need of long term assessment of the survivors, even though majority of them were within the normal weight range.
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