Effect of body mass index on the prognosis of children and adolescents with high‐grade mature B‐cell non‐Hodgkin lymphoma

Abstract Background Little progress has been made in determining the prognostic factors for children and adolescents with high‐grade mature B‐cell non‐Hodgkin lymphoma (HG B‐NHL). Based on the important role of body mass index (BMI) in cancer, this study explored the effect of BMI on the prognosis of patients with HG B‐NHL. Methods Patients aged <18 years with newly diagnosed HG B‐NHL were enrolled. Patients were divided into normal, overweight, obese, and emaciated BMI groups according to the growth criteria for children and adolescents. Results In total, 435 patients were enrolled in this study. There were 329 (75.6%), 46 (10.6%), 13 (3.0%), and 47 (10.8%) patients stratified into the normal, overweight, obese, and emaciated BMI groups, respectively. The event‐free survival and overall survival rates of the entire cohort were 89.3% and 92.4%, respectively. The 5‐year event‐free survival rate for the patients with obese BMI was worse than those with overweight BMI (76.2% vs. 95.6%, p = .04). The 5‐year overall survival rate for the patients with emaciated BMI was worse than those with normal (84.5% vs. 93.1%, p = .04) or overweight BMI (84.5% vs. 97.7%, p = .03). Cox multivariate analysis showed that obese or emaciated BMI at diagnosis was associated with an increased risk of death ( p = 0.04; HR, 2.26) and was identified as an independent adverse prognostic factor in pediatric HG B‐NHL. Conclusion Obese or emaciated BMI at diagnosis is associated with poor prognosis in pediatric HG B‐NHL and can be used for risk stratification.