Effect of nutritional screening in children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia undergoing the maintenance chemotherapy

Abstract Background To investigate the effectiveness of the routine nutritional screening for malnutrition risk in hospitalized children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) on maintenance chemotherapy from the viewpoint of clinical outcomes. Methods The reviews of 1038 pediatric patients were retrieved for the retrospective, propensity score-matched, superiority study. A 1:1 propensity score matching was utilized to match patients who received nutritional screening (screening cohort) to those who remained usual care without screening (control cohort). The primary endpoint was the long-term event-free-survival (EFS) after the last cycle of maintenance. Secondary outcomes included immune function, complications and long-term quality-adjusted life years (QALYs). Results The proportion of cases with risk of malnutrition in screening was 25.8%. At the end of 4 weeks following the last cycle, the level of serum albumin was higher in screening cohort than control cohort (p