IAPEN India: Consensus Guidance and Recommendation on Nutritional Management of Paediatric Cancer Patients

Nutritional imbalances which occur as a result of the disease and its treatment are common problems in paediatric cancer patients. Malnutrition, which encompasses both overnutrition and undernutrition, directly impacts a child's growth, quality of life, treatment outcomes, and survival. Unfortunately, nutritional management of paediatric cancer patients is not standardised and uniform across the country due to the lack of national guidelines. This necessitates the formulation of guidelines and recommendations that will provide a systematic approach and help address the multiple nutritional challenges in paediatric cancer patients. While formulating this consensus statement, a cohort of experts comprising paediatric oncology nutrition experts and oncologists were selected from paediatric oncology centres across India. The committee thus formed put together clinical questions in different areas on identification, evaluation and management of nutritional issues in children undergoing treatment for cancer. An extensive literature search in PubMed was performed; the available evidence was discussed over eight meetings, and recommendations were drafted as per the committee members' discussion and consensus. Practical recommendations were proposed and deliberated upon wherever evidence in the literature was unavailable. Finally, the draft consensus statements and recommendations were approved by all the authors for publication and practice. With this paper, the committee aimed to present a consensus-based guidance for addressing the nutritional needs of children with cancer. Keywords Pediatric Oncology Nutrition, Nutritional Management, Consensus Recommendations and Guidance