Malnutrition and Obesity in Pediatric Oncology Patients

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Research has shown that the treatments used for pediatric cancer often lead to a decline in nutritional status in these young patients.  This decline can then lead to an increased risk of disease-related morbidity and mortality, making this issue very important.  The review article entitled “Malnutrition and Obesity in Pediatric Oncology Patients: Cause, Consequences, and Interventions” delves into the topic of nutrition in pediatric cancer patients and seeks to determine the etiologies of suboptimal nutrition status, as well as its consequences and current treatment strategies.  One thing I learned from this article was that not all pediatric cancer patients are at the same nutritional risk; different cancers and the varying treatments employed in these different cancers lead to vastly different nutritional problems.  Before reading this review, I did not realize that children with certain cancers are at more of a risk for the onset of obesity than undernutrition, and this could be due to hormone deregulation, steroid use, reduced physical activity, or damage to the hypothalamic-pituitary axis, along with many other causes.  Dietitians have an opportunity to powerfully impact young individuals with this heartbreaking disease, and as described by the author, understanding the role that nutrition plays in pediatric cancer is necessary “to leverage this modifiable factor to improve quality of life and survival for pediatric cancer patients and survivors”.

-Ashley

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