Evaluation of Obesity, Insulin Resistance and Metabolic Syndrome in Childhood Leukemia Survivors

Background: Leukemia is one of the most common malignancies in childhood, accounting for about 40 per million children under the age of 15 years. Acute lymphoblastic leukemia accounts for about 75% of these cases of leukemia. Regarding the improvement in life expectancy and the prolonged life of patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia, identifying the long-term complications and effects of treatment in patients is necessary.Methods: The present applied study is a cohort study based on the case-control method. In order to achieve the purpose of the study, 50 patients who had improved acute lymphoblastic leukemia were selected as a case group; the selections were conducted in a sequential manner in Mofid Children Hospital. 50 other people who had no history of ALL disease were selected as the control group. All information gathering processes including patient history, physical examination, and necessary tests were done by a pediatric hematology oncology subspecialties fellow and trained personnel with full supervision of Pediatric hematologist - oncologist. Blood samples were taken at 10-cc of fasting blood. Blood samples after centrifugation and storage at 20 ° C were used to measure serum fasting blood glucose, triglyceride (Slovak based on serum lipid profile), and insulin levels. All demographic information, BMI, clinical symptoms, laboratory tests, and treatments were recorded in both forms. Data were finally entered into SPSS version 21 and analyzed using the GEE method.Results: the incidence of obesity was significantly higher in patients with ALL as compared with the controls. The risk of obesity in ALL patients was found to be approximately 9 times higher than the controls. In this study 6 (12%) patients in cases and 4 (%8) patients in controls had metabolic syndrome. There was no statistically significant difference between the groups in the incidence of metabolic syndrome, insulin resistance, and visceral obesity.Conclusion: It is suggested that after acute lymphoblastic leukemia treatment in children, in addition to regular follow up for disease recurrence, the patients should be monitored about metabolic syndrome or any of its components, especially weight gain, and obesity.