Background: Brain bases and progression of methotrexate-associated neurotoxicity and cognitive disturbances remain unknown. We tested whether brain abnormalities worsen in proportion to intrathecal methotrexate(IT-MTX) doses.
Methods: In this prospective, longitudinal study, we recruited 19 patients with newly diagnosed acute lymphoblastic leukemia 4-to-20 years of age and 20 matched controls.