Abstract
Malnutrition is a significant issue for pediatric cancer patients. Poor nutritional status adversely affects cancer patients resulting in impaired cell-mediated immunity, poor wound healing, increased risk of infection, chemotherapy intolerance, tumor relapse, and decreased survival. Most guidelines recommend that children with cancer be screened for malnutrition risk during therapy; however, guidelines for nutritional rehabilitation in this population are not well defined. Enteral nutrition using percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy (PEG) feedings have long been used in the adult population in patients with head and neck cancer. The safety and efficacy of PEG tube feedings in pediatric cancer patients have not been widely investigated. PEG feedings may prevent or reverse malnutrition in this population. Our aim was to identify the efficacy of PEG feedings using Z-scores for weight. We hypothesized that PEG feedings would lead to an increase in Z-scores for weight in children with cancer.
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