Nutritional assessment of patients with acute leukemia during induction chemotherapy: association with hospital outcomes

Abstract

Cancer-related malnutrition causes morbidity and reduced survival. The aim of this study was to evaluate the nutritional and inflammatory status of patients with acute leukemia in association with duration of neutropenic fever (DNF) and length of hospital stay (LHS) during induction chemotherapy. Fifty-five patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) (n = 28) and acute myeloid leukemia (AML) (n = 27) completed the study. There were significant differences between the two groups according to LHS and DNF (p = 0.022 and p = 0.012, respectively): both had a longer period in patients with AML. The patients were statistically different according to body mass index (BMI), pre-albumin, high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) and patient-generated subjective global assessment (PG-SGA) score (p = 0.049, p = 0.028, p < 0.001, p = 0.030). In patients with ALL, serum albumin and pre-albumin levels were associated with LHS and DNF, respectively. Moreover, PG-SGA score was associated with DNF. In patients with AML, BMI and second pre-albumin level <10 mg/dL were associated with DNF. Pre-albumin was the common indicator for chemotherapy-related complications in patients with both ALL and AML. Early nutritional assessment can help to find patients with acute leukemia who need nutritional support, and it may contribute to better outcome and less toxicity.