SUMMARY Introduction: The assessment of the nutritional status of children diagnosed with cancer the first time allows to propose an appropriate and timely nutritional recovery plan. Objective: To determine the nutritional status using body mass index (BMI) and height for age (H/A) in children <13 years diagnosed with cancer of the first time the Hospital Universitario del Valle (HUV) Evaristo Garcia from Cali, Colombia, and potential associations. Methodology: Prevalence study of 38 children with cancer. Were considered clinical, paraclinical and sociodemographic. Statistical analysis included estimation of the proportion of infected children and their corresponding confidence interval 95%; estimate percentages, percentiles, means, medians and other descriptive measures with their corresponding standard deviations and ranges; univariate analysis, possible occurrence of association between the variables (ORs with confidence intervals at 95%) Fisher's exact test with a p value <0.05, two- tailed, significant, and multiple logistic regression analysis. Results: There was a 36.8% prevalence of malnutrition and stunting, respectively, with an average age of 70±49 months. There was a predominance of female gender. There was more opportunity to malnutrition and stunting, respectively, in females, presenting solid tumor and anemia. The factors associated with malnutrition were sex, age and type of tumor, and stunting: anemia. Conclusion: The nutritional status was involved in 36.8%, with potential risk factors for malnutrition, gender, age and type of tumor, and stunting, anemia.