Obesity Is Associated With Favorable Cytogenetic Abnormalities In Pediatric Acute Myeloid Leukemia

Background: In adults, obesity has been associated with increased risk of developing acute myeloid leukemia (AML) with recurrent cytogenetic abnormalities and preclinical studies indicate that certain proteins associated with obesity are also involved in the development of subtypes of AML. Studies on the effect of body-mass index (BMI) in childhood AML have suggested differences in cytogenetic abnormalities across weight-groups, but the association has not been well-studied. Further, the effect of BMI on outcome in children with AML is controversial. While previous studies have found that overweight is associated with worse survival, mainly due to increased treatment-related mortality, others have not confirmed this association. We investigated differences in cytogenetic abnormalities, treatment-related mortality, relapse and overall survival in four weight groups in a large multi-institutional cohort of children diagnosed with AML.