AN EXAMINATION OF OBESITY IN PEDIATRIC BRAIN TUMOR SURVIVORS: FOOD FOR THOUGHT

Abstract

Background: Great strides have been made in childhood cancer treatment efficacy over the past two decades leading to improved survival rates, and now attention is being directed toward identifying and understanding complications that affect many of these patients as they reach adulthood. Obesity is a well‐recognized late effect that has many potential long‐term consequences some of which include cardiovascular disease, type II diabetes mellitus, dyslipidemia and even death. Materials/Methods: We conducted a retrospective chart review to determine the prevalence of obesity among survivors of pediatric brain tumors 5 years after the completion of therapy and compare this to the general pediatric population of the same age. We also sought to identify potential risk factors for the development of obesity among survivors of childhood brain tumors. Obesity was defined as a body mass index (BMI) greater than the 95th percentile for age and gender as defined by the most recent Center for Disease Control growth curves. Results: We identified 96 patients who met our inclusion criteria, however only 43 had follow‐up data at 5 years after the completion of therapy to be included in final analysis. Of 43 patients, 5 (11.63%) were obese 5 years after completion of therapy. The CDC sites general population obesity rates in three age groups: 2‐5 years (8.4% obesity rate), 6‐ 11 years (18% obesity rate), 12‐19 years (21% obesity rate). Using CDC guidelines, we found no significant difference between the obesity rate among the brain tumor survivor population for each age group and the general population, p‐values of 0.865, 0.865, and 0.249 respectively. Conclusion: Our small sample size was likely not adequate to find a significant difference between the two groups or identify risk factors associated with the development of obesity. Larger studies are needed to further examine the risk of obesity among pediatric brain tumor survivors and to identify risk factors associated with this late effect.