White matter and information processing speed following treatment with cranial-spinal radiation for pediatric brain tumor.

Objective: We compared the structure of specific white matter tracts and information processing speed between children treated for posterior fossa tumors with cranial-spinal radiation (n = 30), or with surgery +/- focal radiation (n = 29), and healthy children (n = 37).

Method: Probabilistic diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) tractography was used to delineate the inferior longitudinal fasciculi, optic radiation, inferior frontal occipital fasciculi, and uncinate fasciculi bilaterally. Information processing speed was measured using the coding and symbol search subtests of the Wechsler Intelligence Scales, and visual matching, pair cancellation, and rapid picture naming subtests of the Woodcock-Johnson Test of Cognitive Ability, 3rd revision.

Neuropsychological late effects of treatment for acute leukemia in children with Down syndrome.

Background: Children with Down syndrome (DS) have an elevated risk of developing acute leukemia, but little is known about treatment-related neuropsychological morbidity because they are systematically excluded from research in this area. The current study investigated neuropsychological outcomes in children with DS treated for acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) or acute myeloid leukemia (AML) compared to children with DS with no history of cancer.

Procedure: Participants were 4 to 17 years of age at testing and were administered measures of intelligence, academic achievement, language, visual-motor and fine-motor skills, and adaptive function.

White matter compromise predicts poor intellectual outcome in survivors of pediatric low-grade glioma.

Background: While the impact of cranial radiation on white matter following treatment for pediatric brain tumor has been the focus of many recent studies, the effect of treatment in the absence of radiation has received little attention. The relations between white matter and cognitive outcome have not been explored in patients who have undergone radiation-free treatment. As most patients treated without cranial radiation survive long after their diagnosis, it is critical to identify factors that may impact structural and neurocognitive outcomes.

Brain lesions and IQ: recovery versus decline depends on age of onset.

A growing literature suggests that early lesions are associated with poorer IQ outcome. Those studies covered a restricted age range in pediatric populations only and did not control for important moderator variables. The present investigation studied IQ change in brain-lesioned children and adults (age 0 to 84 years).

Cognitive changes in children treated for acute lymphoblastic leukemia with chemotherapy only according to the Pediatric Oncology Group 9605 protocol.

The purpose of this study was to examine cognitive functioning and neuroimaging in children with leukemia treated with the Pediatric Oncology Group 9605 protocol at the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario. Mean age at diagnosis was 4.88 +/- 2.

Predictors of intellectual function after a unilateral cortical lesion: study of 635 patients from infancy to adulthood.

This study investigated potential predictors of intellectual outcome in 417 children and 218 adults who had sustained a unilateral cortical lesion. Of these, 295 cases were collected from the scientific literature and 340 from medical records at seven hospitals in Canada Different sets of predictors emerged for the Wechsler Verbal and Performance IQ values, accounting for differing variances (i.e.