Nutrition and the child with cancer: where do we stand and where do we need to go?

Abstract

As a result of ongoing research and better supportive care, the treatment of childhood malignancies has dramatically improved survival in developed countries. The same cannot be said about the all important nutritional care of the child with cancer as much still needs to be done to reach the ultimate goal, namely to provide evidence based nutritional intervention that will contribute to further improvements in optimal outcomes. Furthermore, in developing countries, especially in Low Income Countries, malnutrition is only one aspect of socioeconomic disadvantages that are associated negatively with many components of cancer control, from access to care, through to treatment compliance, to long-term follow-up. In these settings economic evaluations of nutritional support in the form of cost-effectiveness and cost-utility analyses, would be logical undertakings.