High body mass index did not result in poor outcome in Taiwanese children with acute myeloid leukemia: a single-institution experience

Overweight/obese patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) are reported as experiencing inferior outcomes and greater numbers of treatment-related complications. We retrospectively studied 58 children with newly diagnosed AML who received chemotherapy at Chang Gung Memorial Hospital between January 2003 and December 2011. Patients enrolled were considered overweight if body mass index (BMI) was ≥85th percentile. Fifteen of 58 (25.9 %) patients were judged overweight by this criterion. Patients diagnosed in the last third of this period (2009–2011) had a higher average BMI (P = 0.06). The rates of documented infection in overweight patients and non-overweight patients were not significantly different (53.3 vs. 62.8 %). The 5-year event-free survival (EFS) of overweight patients was superior to that of non-overweight patients (78.8 vs. 55.4 %). Patients (n = 11) who received hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) in first remission (CR1) had a significantly higher 5-year EFS (87.5 vs. 55.2 %, P = 0.04). Among 47 children who did not receive HSCT in CR1, 10 (21.3 %) were overweight. The 5-year EFS of overweight patients was consistently superior to that for non-overweight patients (70.0 vs. 51.2 %). In conclusion, overweight/obese children with AML did not experience poor outcomes in the present study.