Comparison between growth impairment in pediatric patients with ALL,NHL treated with chemotherapy alone and chemoradiotherapy

Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL) and Non Hodgkin’s Lymphoma(NHL) are the most common cancers in childhood and adolescence. Despite of long survival, 80% of pediatric cancers survivors following the treatment will develop late complications such as endocrinopathy (20-50% prevalence), which in addition to cytotoxic chemotherapy and radiotherapy could affect child growth. we evaluated growth percentiles in 50 children with ALL (n=25),NHL(n=25) at 3-18 years old in remission period who received chemotherapy with (n=25) or without (n=25) head and neck radiation. Patients with less than 5th percentile height referred to assess hypopituitarism and growth hormone deficiency (GHD) by insulin stimulating test. Data were analyzed with SPSS software and presented with Mann – whitney, Regression, T teses and Pearson, Spearman's rho correlations. 6(12%) Patients were in less than 5th percentile height who 5 children (83.0%) had isolated GHD. Cortisol, ACTH Prolactin IGF-1 IGF-BP3 were at normal value 5 of these 6 (83.0%) children underwent head and neck radiotherapy in addition to chemotherapy. There was no significant difference between 2 treatment group in exact–fisher test (P= 0.189)because of small amount of samples. 2 patients (4.0%) had over weight in assessing BMI(Body Mass Index). regarding to short stature and GHD in our patients due to their malignancy and treatment, it is important to pay attention more about growth and some modalities in treatments to improve their quality of life.