Health-related Quality of Life in children and adolescents treated for acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL), compared with healthy peers: a longitudinal study of early survivorship.

Purpose: Survival for childhood Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia (ALL) has surpassed 90%, making quality of survival an important endpoint in treatment outcomes. This study examined health-related quality of life (HRQoL) trajectories in early survivorship for patients post-ALL treatment compared with a matched group of healthy peers, and explored the association of individual factors (age, sex) and treatment intensity with HRQoL outcomes.

Methods: Eighty-three paediatric patients aged 4-16 years who recently completed treatment for ALL were recruited to the study, alongside 53 age- and sex-matched healthy children.

Fatigue in children who have recently completed treatment for acute lymphoblastic leukemia: a longitudinal study.

Background: This study examined fatigue in patients treated for childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) over a 2-year period (3- to 27-months post-treatment completion), from the perspective of children and parent caregivers, compared to a healthy comparison group.

Methods: Eighty-three patients (4-16 years at enrolment) and their parents, reported on the child's fatigue using the Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory- Multidimensional Fatigue Scale (PedsQL-MFS), at 3- 15- and 27-months post-treatment completion, and 53 healthy children and their parents reported on fatigue across the same timepoints.

Results: Parent proxy-reporting showed that parents of ALL patients reported more total fatigue than parents of the comparison group at all time points, with all subscales elevated (general, cognitive, and sleep/rest fatigue).

Behavioral and Emotional Functioning of Children and Adolescents at the End of Treatment for Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia Compared to Healthy Peers.

This study describes the behavioral and emotional adjustment of 77 children and adolescents 3 months post-treatment for acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), compared to 52 age and sex-matched healthy peers. Parents, teachers, and self-report ratings on the Behavioral Assessment System for Children, Second Edition (BASC-2) were utilized to measure psychological function. While overall mean scores were in the average range for both groups, parents and teachers rated patients higher on behavior symptoms, internalizing problems and adaptive skill difficulties.

Parent perceptions of pediatric oncology care during the COVID-19 pandemic: An Australian study.

Background: We examined parents' perceptions of their child's oncology care during a period of significant COVID-19 restrictions in Australia.

Methods: Parents of children, 0-18 years, receiving hospital-based cancer treatment, completed a survey examining their COVID-19 exposure and impact, information and knowledge, and perception of their child's medical care. Recruitment occurred between October and November 2020.

Parental adjustment following their child's completion of acute lymphoblastic leukemia treatment.

Background: Few studies haveexamined parent and family adaptation in the early period following the end of childhood cancer treatment. We examined parent adjustment at the end of their child's treatment for acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL).

Methods: Parents of childhood cancer survivors (CCS), who were 3 months post-ALL treatment, and parents of typically developing children completed measures of psychological and family functioning.

Health-related quality of life in paediatric patients up to five years post-treatment completion for acute lymphoblastic leukaemia: a systematic review.

Purpose: Despite survival rates greater than 90%, treatment for paediatric acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) remains challenging for families. The early post-treatment phase is an especially unique time of adjustment. The primary aim of this review was to identify and synthesise research on health-related quality of life (HRQoL) for patients up to five years post-treatment.

Brain morphology and information processing at the completion of chemotherapy-only treatment for pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

: Approximately 50% of survivors of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) demonstrate cognitive impairments. However, the trajectory of change and contributing neuropathology is unclear, limiting our ability to tailor intervention content and timing. This study aimed to explore information processing abilities and brain morphology early post-treatment for pediatric ALL.

White Matter Microstructure and Information Processing at the Completion of Chemotherapy-Only Treatment for Pediatric Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia.

Little is known about white matter microstructure and its role in information processing abilities of children treated for acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) early posttreatment. Twenty-one survivors of ALL and 18 controls (7-16 years) underwent neurocognitive assessment. A subsample underwent diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging.

Optimized 3D co-registration of ultra-low-field and high-field magnetic resonance images.

The prototypes of ultra-low-field (ULF) MRI scanners developed in recent years represent new, innovative, cost-effective and safer systems, which are suitable to be integrated in multi-modal (Magnetoencephalography and MRI) devices. Integrated ULF-MRI and MEG scanners could represent an ideal solution to obtain functional (MEG) and anatomical (ULF MRI) information in the same environment, without errors that may limit source reconstruction accuracy. However, the low resolution and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of ULF images, as well as their limited coverage, do not generally allow for the construction of an accurate individual volume conductor model suitable for MEG localization.

Family Functioning and Mood and Anxiety Symptoms in Adolescents Born Extremely Preterm.

Objective: To (1) compare adolescent- and parent-perceived family functioning between extremely preterm/extremely low birth weight (<28 wk/<1000 g, EP/ELBW) and normal birth weight (>2499 g, NBW) adolescents and (2) determine whether adolescents' or parents' ratings of family functioning were related to concurrent depression and anxiety symptoms in the adolescent and whether these relationships varied by birth group.

Methods: One hundred ninety-three EP/ELBW and 151 NBW adolescents (aged 15-20 yr) and their parents rated aspects of family functioning on the Family Environment Scale. Adolescents rated current depression and anxiety symptoms on the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale-Revised and Beck Anxiety Inventory.

The relationship between cognitive and neuroimaging outcomes in children treated for acute lymphoblastic leukemia with chemotherapy only: A systematic review.

Cognitive late-effects have been identified in patients treated with chemotherapy-only protocols for childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), yet the underlying neuropathology is not well understood. This review synthesized recent findings from eight articles investigating the relationship between neurocognitive and neuroimaging outcomes for patients treated for ALL with chemotherapy-only protocols. Reported cognitive domains, imaging methods, and neuroanatomy examined were variable.

Fast Room Temperature Very Low Field-Magnetic Resonance Imaging System Compatible with MagnetoEncephaloGraphy Environment.

In recent years, ultra-low field (ULF)-MRI is being given more and more attention, due to the possibility of integrating ULF-MRI and Magnetoencephalography (MEG) in the same device. Despite the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) reduction, there are several advantages to operating at ULF, including increased tissue contrast, reduced cost and weight of the scanners, the potential to image patients that are not compatible with clinical scanners, and the opportunity to integrate different imaging modalities. The majority of ULF-MRI systems are based, until now, on magnetic field pulsed techniques for increasing SNR, using SQUID based detectors with Larmor frequencies in the kHz range.

Executive function in adolescents born <1000 g or <28 weeks: a prospective cohort study.

Background And Objectives: Extremely preterm (EP; <28 weeks) birth and extremely low birth weight (ELBW; <1000 g) are risk factors for poor cognitive outcomes, including in executive function (EF; higher-order cognitive skills necessary for goal-directed, adaptive functioning and important for academic and behavioral-emotional outcomes). We aimed to (1) extend the limited data on EF in EP/ELBW survivors in adolescence compared with normal birth weight controls, and (2) determine changes in EF between ages 8 and 17 years in both groups.

Methods: Two hundred twenty-eight EP/ELBW and 166 control adolescents (mean age, 17 years) from a prospective geographical cohort were assessed with multiple EF tasks, and parent- and self-ratings of behavioral EF.

Visuomotor function in children treated for acute lymphoblastic leukaemia with chemotherapy only.

This study aimed to evaluate visuomotor function in children treated for acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL). The performance of 64 children, 1-7 years post-chemotherapy for ALL, was compared to that of their healthy peers (n = 56) on visuomotor integration (VMI) and motor coordination (MC) tasks. Children posttreatment for ALL displayed significantly reduced VMI, but not MC, performances as compared to controls.

Motor functioning during and following treatment with chemotherapy for pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

This systematic review evaluated empirical studies examining motor skills in children during and following treatment for acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Most studies indicated that children on-treatment display poorer gross and fine motor abilities than healthy peers, but generally have intact visual-motor integration skills. Studies have reported gross motor difficulties in 5-54% of survivors.

School-age outcomes of extremely preterm or extremely low birth weight children.

Objective: Research is required to monitor changes in the nature of neurobehavioral deficits in extremely preterm (EP) or extremely low birth weight (ELBW) survivors. This study examines cognitive, academic, and behavioral outcomes at age 8 years for a regional cohort of EP/ELBW children born in 1997.

Methods: The EP/ELBW cohort comprised all live births with a gestational age <28 weeks (EP) or birth weight <1000 g (ELBW) born in the state of Victoria, Australia, in 1997.

Gross and fine motor skills in children treated for acute lymphoblastic leukaemia.

Objective: Chemotherapy treatment for acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) may disrupt motor development, with suggestions that gross and fine motor deficits are different depending on time since treatment.

Methods: Thirty-seven participants aged between 2.5 to 5 years at the time of diagnosis were assessed using the Movement Assessment Battery for Children, 2nd Edition (MABC-2) and the Bruininks-Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency, 2nd Edition, Short Form (BOT-2 SF), and divided into groups (i.

Feasibility of neurobehavioral screening following diagnosis of pediatric cancer.

Background: Neurobehavioral deficits will affect up to 50% of pediatric cancer survivors treated with central nervous system (CNS)-directed therapies. Guidelines suggest assessment of neurobehavioral skills at diagnosis be extended from patients with brain tumors to include all patients requiring CNS-directed therapies. However, comprehensive neuropsychological assessment at diagnosis is difficult to implement and resource intensive.

Attention problems in a representative sample of extremely preterm/extremely low birth weight children.

The aim of this study was to examine attention in a large, representative, contemporary cohort of children born extremely preterm (EP) and/or extremely low birth weight (ELBW). Participants included 189 of 201 surviving children born EP (<28 weeks' gestation) or ELBW (<1,000 g) in 1997 in the state of Victoria, Australia. A comparison group of 173 of 199 children born full term and normal birth weight (FT/NBW) were randomly selected matching for birth hospital, expected due date, gender, mother's country of birth, and health insurance status.

Developmental coordination disorder in geographic cohorts of 8-year-old children born extremely preterm or extremely low birthweight in the 1990s.

Aim: The aim of the study was to examine the prevalence of developmental coordination disorder (DCD) at the age of 8 years in a geographic cohort of extremely preterm or extremely-low-birthweight (EP/ELBW) children and a term-born comparison group, as well as associated academic outcomes, parents' perceptions of motor performance, and changes in prevalence during the 1990s.

Method: Moderate DCD was defined as a score below the 5th centile on the Movement Assessment Battery for Children in children without cerebral palsy or intellectual impairment. DCD rates were compared in a group of 132 8-year-old children born in 1997 at 22 to 27 weeks' gestation or birthweight of less than 1000 g (49% male, 51% female) and a comparison group of 154 term-born children (55% male, 45% female).

Non-magnetic equipment for the high-resolution quantification of finger kinematics during functional studies of bimanual coordination.

Simultaneous recording of behavioral and functional data is crucial in capturing the neural mechanisms underpinning human motor actions. We describe a non-magnetic equipment (NME) to record finger kinematics, in particular the absolute amplitude of finger oscillation, during bimanual coordination paradigms performed in functional studies. NME monitors finger movements with optic fiber signals that are post-processed off-line to quantify finger kinematics.

Underestimation of developmental delay by the new Bayley-III Scale.

Objective: To assess the ability of the third edition of the Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development (Bayley-III) to detect developmental delay in 2-year-old children who were extremely preterm and those carried to term.

Design: Prospective cohort study.

Setting: The state of Victoria, Australia.

Striatal activity during intentional switching depends on pattern stability.

The theoretical framework of coordination dynamics posits complementary neural mechanisms to maintain complex behavioral patterns under circumstances that may render them unstable and to voluntarily switch between behaviors if changing internal or external conditions so demand. A candidate neural structure known to play a role in both the selection and maintenance of intentional behavior is the basal ganglia. Here, we use functional magnetic resonance imaging to explore the role of basal ganglia in intentional switching between bimanual coordination patterns that are known to differ in their stability as a function of movement rate.