Análise imunofenotípica e avaliação nutricional na leucemia linfoblástica aguda da criança: [carta ao editor] / Immunophenotypic analysis and evaluation of nutritional status in childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia: [letter to editor]

The cure rate for childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) differs between developed and developing countries. In developing countries there is a high prevalence of malnutrition thus it is important to evaluate the association between factors of nutritionand ALL prognosis, as well as to identify the prevalence of immunophenotypes and their association with nutritional status. Eighty-six children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia diagnosedin two universities in Rio de Janeiro were studied. The frequencies of each immunological subtype were: common ALL 57%, pre-B 9.3%; pro-B 8.1%; T-ALL 18% and biphenotypic ALL 7.0%. Itwas noticed that the typical incidence peak of common ALL is between 1 and 6 years old. The small number of malnourished children did not allow statistical analysis to compare data between the immunophenotype and nutritional status. For the same reason,a statistical approach comparing malnutrition status with complete remission and relapse rates was impaired. The relative incidence of each immunological subtype was similar to those found in developed countriess.