Assessment of puberty processand obesity in children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and Non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) receiving chemotherapy with or without radiotherapy combined

Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and Non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) are the most common malignanciesamong the childhood and adolescent. According to their long-term treatment, common complicationssuch as endocrinedisorders (growth, puberty, and Body Mass Index (BMI) disorders) are observed.
Material & During a three-year study,criteria of growth and puberty were evaluated in50 children with ALL (n: 25) &NHL (n: 25) who were 3 to 17 years old and were in remission period of disease and treated by chemotherapy (n: 25) or chemo-radiotherapy (n: 25). Less than 5th or more than 95th percentile values were considered as abnormal.
Precocious puberty and delayed puberty weren’tfound in the patients. Sixpatients (12%) had a height less than 5th percentile. BMI in twopatients (4%) was above the 95th percentile. Weight in threepatients (6%) wasmore than 95th and in sixpatients (12%) wasless than 5th percentile. After eliminating the confounding factor of age, in compression for variables of weight, BMI and height,there was no statistically significant differencebetween two groups with different therapeutic regimen (P=0.161, P=0.576, p=0.656, respectively). But there was a significant difference in the case of height between the twogroups ofALL and NHL.(P=0.007)
Due to the importance of growthmonitoring (height, weight) and puberty in children and adolescents, more attention to the growth process is required in cases with ALL and NHL.