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

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 < .05) after transplantation in both groups. In the absence of the BP intervention, dramatic decreases in muscle-related indicators (i.e., anthropometric variables, muscle strength and serum protein) were observed in the majority (>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 < .05). The ingestion of the BP also increased the levels of serum albumin, globulin and serum total protein to different extents. Notably, the average time to stem cell engraftment was significantly shorter for patients in the BP group (12.2 ± 2.0 days) than for patients in the ND group (15.1 ± 2.9 days). Collectively, our data supported that soy-whey protein can improve PEM status and muscle mass in leukemia patients.