الفهرس 
literature reviewOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
 |  | from | 255 |  |  |
| | | from | 255 | | |
Abstract
Children with are susceptible to nutritional depletion due to the combined effects of the
malignant disease and its treatment. The aim of the study was to evaluate the nutritional
status of children with cancer undergoing chemo and/or radiotherapy. The study was
carried out at the Oncology Institution in Damietta City on 105 children having cancer
and receiving treatment and their family caregivers using a cross-sectional analytical
design. Data were collected by an interview questionnaire and a physical assessment
sheet. The fieldwork lasted from 9/2011 to 112012. The results indicated that lymphoma
and leukemia are the commonest cancers and chemotherapy with or without radiotherapy
is the therapy mostly used. Children suffer many gastrointestinal symptoms as anorexia,
nausea, and vomiting, and subsequently inadequate eating habits. The majority have signs
of malnutrition in the lips, face, teeth, hair and skin, and abnormal anthropometric
measurements and hemoglobin and serum albumin levels which were related to lack of
balanced diet. All these indicate a poor nutritional status, which is associated with certain
socio-demographic and disease characteristics as separated parents, family income, residence,
longer disease and therapy durations, more hospital admissions, previous blood transfusion,
and more days of hospitalization. Therefore, cancer children under chemo- and/or radiotherapy
need more attention towards their nutrition in order to anticipate the symptoms, signs, and
sequels of malnutrition.