الفهرس 
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Abstract
Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is a heterogeneous hematologic disease characterized by the proliferation of immature lymphoid cells in the bone marrow, peripheral blood, and other organs Children with cancer are susceptible to nutritional depletion due to the combined effects of the malignant disease and its treatment. Malnutrition is a common phenomenon among the patients with cancer. But it is often ignored in treatments and follow-up care. Also, through diagnosis and early treatment, better quality of life is expected for the patients. Adequate nutrition during cancer plays an important role in clinical outcome measures, such as treatment response, quality of life and cost of care. However, in a recent critical review of important aspects of nutrition in children with cancer it was found that the importance of nutrition in children and young adults with malignancies is still underestimated.
The current study was conducted to assess the nutritional status and its determinants of children with ALL attending the Pediatric Hematology Oncology Unit (PHOU), Smouha Hospital for Pediatric Medicine and Surgery, to give a basis for providing patients with nutritional intervention.
A cross sectional study was conducted to accomplish the study aims using a structured interviewing questionnaire to collect data about the selected ALL children from their accompanying mothers or care givers. Also ALL children’s files and records were reviewed and their anthropometric measurements have been taken.
The results of this study are presented in four parts namely:
Part I: Sociodemographic data of the studied All children
Sex and age:
About three fifths of ALL children (61.9%) were males .The mean age was 6.12 ± 3.06 years ranging from two years up to 14 years.
Parent’s education and occupation:
Less than one quarter (23.8%) of fathers had secondary education, about one fifth (21.0%) can read and write, less than one fifth (17.0%) were university graduates. More than one third of mothers (34.35%) had secondary education, less than one third (30.5%) were illiterate, only one tenth (10.5%) were university graduates. About three fifths of the children’s fathers (61.9%) were manual workers, similar proportions (15.2%) had hand work outside the house or had professional work, while minority had written work (1.9%), on the other hand most of the mothers (94.3%) were house wives