Funding outcome

Chemotherapy is one of the main treatment of childhood cancer and it is known to have a wide range of side effects. A common side effect is kidney injury and this occurs in up to 60% of children with cancer depending on their treatment. The main strategy to protect kidney function is to provide fluids (also called pre-hydration) to ensure that patients are well hydrated before the infusion of chemotherapy. Too much hydration before treatment can also lead to fluid overload, edema and respiratory discomfort. Finding out if a patient is well hydrated is tricky. We currently use clinical signs such as blood pressure, presence of swelling, or weight variation, along with tests on blood and urine. These tools are not only imprecise but our team has previously shown that they don't work well in children with cancer. When adjustment of hydration is needed, it can lead to delay in starting chemotherapy, adding stress for the patient and slowing down nursing workflow. There is a new non-invasive tool measuring body hydration called Bio-Impedance Spectroscopy using a Body Composition Monitor (BCM). It is currently used for evaluating hydration in children requiring dialysis, who also have issues with hydration. It is a painless device which measures body water content using electrodes placed on wrist and ankle. It has been shown to be efficient in children to assess hydration. We will compare BCM findings with our current methods of assessing patient hydration. We will also survey acceptance of this new tool by our patient and nurses. We expect that the BCM will be efficient to assess hydration compared to our current practices and will be well accepted. This study may show how to improve the accuracy of hydration assessment before chemotherapy infusion in children with cancer and may lead to a positive change in clinical practice.