Protein blend ingestion before allogeneic stem cell transplantation improves protein-energy malnutrition in patients with leukemia

Abstract Severe protein-energy malnutrition (PEM) and skeletal muscle wasting are commonly observed in patients with acute leukemia. Recently, the ingestion of a soy-whey protein blend has been shown to promote muscle protein synthesis (MPS). Thus, we tested the hypothesis that the ingestion of a soy-whey blended protein (BP) may improve the PEM status and muscle mass in acute leukemia patients. In total, 24 patients from the same treatment group were randomly assigned to the natural diet plus soy-whey blended protein (BP) group and the natural diet only (ND) group. Our data showed that protein and energy intake decreased significantly ( P 50%) of the patients. However, 66% of the patients who ingested the BP before transplantation showed obvious increases in arm muscle area. The gripping power value (△ post-pre or △ post-baseline ) was significantly higher in the BP group than in the ND group ( P