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Abstract Children with are susceptible to nutritional depletion due to the combined effects of the malignant disease and its treatment. The aim of the study was to evaluate the nutritional status of children with cancer undergoing chemo and/or radiotherapy. The study was carried out at the Oncology Institution in Damietta City on 105 children having cancer and receiving treatment and their family caregivers using a cross-sectional analytical design. Data were collected by an interview questionnaire and a physical assessment sheet. The fieldwork lasted from 9/2011 to 112012. The results indicated that lymphoma and leukemia are the commonest cancers and chemotherapy with or without radiotherapy is the therapy mostly used. Children suffer many gastrointestinal symptoms as anorexia, nausea, and vomiting, and subsequently inadequate eating habits. The majority have signs of malnutrition in the lips, face, teeth, hair and skin, and abnormal anthropometric measurements and hemoglobin and serum albumin levels which were related to lack of balanced diet. All these indicate a poor nutritional status, which is associated with certain socio-demographic and disease characteristics as separated parents, family income, residence, longer disease and therapy durations, more hospital admissions, previous blood transfusion, and more days of hospitalization. Therefore, cancer children under chemo- and/or radiotherapy need more attention towards their nutrition in order to anticipate the symptoms, signs, and sequels of malnutrition. |