RESULTS
Thirty-one patients were enrolled in the study. Two patients died of
progressive disease in the first six months, and seven others relapsed
within 18 months of diagnosis. Twenty-nine patients were evaluated
approximately six months after diagnosis. Diagnoses included Acute
Myeloid Leukemia (n=1), Alveolar Rhabdomyosarcoma (n=1), Astrocytoma
(n=1), B-Cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL, n=7), Burkitt Lymphoma
(n=3), Ependymoma (n=1), Epithelioid Sarcoma (n=1), Ewing Sarcoma (n=4),
Germinoma (n=1), Hodgkin Lymphoma (n=1), Langerhans Cell Histiocytosis
(n=1), Medulloblastoma (n=2), Neuroblastoma (n=2), Osteosarcoma (n=1),
T-Cell ALL (n=1) and Wilms Tumor (n=1). The median age at diagnosis was
8.2 years. No patient at diagnosis or at six months from diagnosis had a
Z score for height, weight, and BMI <2 SD or >2
SD of the Z score. Table 1 There was no documentation of patients having
clinical signs of micronutrient deficiency. Table 2 documents the number
of patients with abnormal micronutrient levels. Low levels of vitamin D
and Zinc were most common. There were 2 patients with normal levels of
micronutrients, 3 with 1 low level, 9 with 2 low levels, 11 with 3 low
levels, 3 with 4 low level, and 1 with 5 low levels.
A survey of parents/guardians indicated that micronutrient
supplementation was given to 12 patients at diagnosis and 14 patients
during chemotherapy. There were approximately sixty-five side effects
documented during the study period. There were nineteen admissions due
to patients being febrile with neutropenia. No statistically significant
side effect correlations could be made due to the small sample size, but
trends of low vitamin D, and Zn levels were shown for admissions for
fever