Abstract
BACKGROUND: The incidence of childhood malnutrition i.e., both obesity and undernutrition, is on a rise. While there is extensive evidence of the influence of body mass index (BMI) on the survival and other important outcomes of adult cancers, the impact of childhood BMI on one of the common pediatric cancers i.e., leukemia is not well studied. METHODS: Systematic search of PubMed, Scopus, and Google Scholar databases was done to identify studies that were conducted among pediatric patients with leukemia and had examined outcomes of interest based on BMI at the time of diagnosis. RESULTS: Effect sizes were reported as pooled hazards ratio (HR) along with 95% confidence intervals (CI). A total of 17 studies were included. Compared to pediatric leukemia patients with normal BMI, underweight (HR 1.07, 95% CI: 1.04, 1.11) and obese (HR 1.42, 95% CI: 1.18, 1.71) children with leukemia had higher risks of overall mortality. Underweight (HR 1.10, 95% CI: 1.02, 1.19) and obese (HR 1.34, 95% CI: 1.15, 1.55) pediatric leukemia patients had a tendency to lower event-free survival compared to children with normal BMI. The risk of relapse was not significant for underweight, overweight, and obese children. CONCLUSIONS: Both underweight and obese status at the time of diagnosis were associated with poor survival outcomes in pediatric patients with leukemia.