Children who have been treated for brain tumors often experience significant weight gain, and new findings suggest that this could be a sign of hypothalamic-pituitary (HP) dysfunction.
The Dutch study of 661 children who survived a brain tumor found that one third become overweight, obese, or had gained a significant amount of weight during the follow-up period.
Among 578 survivors who were between 4 and 20 years of age at follow-up, 20.3% were classified as overweight and 8.5% as obese, as compared with 10.5% and 2.7%, respectively, in the general Dutch population within the same age group.
Source: The Journal of Clinical Oncology