Alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma has superior response rates to vinorelbine compared to embryonal rhabdomyosarcoma in patients with relapsed/refractory disease: A meta-analysis.

Background: Patients with alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma (ARMS) have inferior outcomes compared to patients with embryonal rhabdomyosarcoma (ERMS) and more effective chemotherapy options are needed for these patients. Vinorelbine is a semisynthetic vinca alkaloid that has clinical activity in relapsed rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS) when used alone or in combination with cyclophosphamide.

Aims: The goal of our study was to evaluate whether RMS histology subtype influences response rate to vinorelbine alone or in combination.

Predictors of cognitive function in pediatric brain tumor patients: Pre-surgery through 24-month follow-up.

The aim of this study was to examine the feasibility of cognitive assessment from pre-surgery through 2-year follow-up in a sample of pediatric brain tumor (BT) patients. We sought to investigate cognitive function over the course of diagnosis and treatment, and as a function of presenting problems, tumor location, treatment type, and tumor severity. Using a prospective, longitudinal design, standardized IQ measures were administered to pediatric BT patients (ages 6-16) prior to surgery ( = 25), 6 months post-diagnosis ( = 24), and 24 months post-diagnosis ( = 23).

Eutectic mixture of lidocaine and prilocaine versus 1% lidocaine injection for lumbar punctures in pediatric oncology patients.

Background: The role of local analgesics for lumbar punctures (LPs) in pediatric oncology patients has not been specifically studied.

Aim: To compare the efficacy of eutectic mixture of local anesthetics (EMLA) cream to 1% lidocaine injection for LPs.

Method: This was a retrospective observational study of all patients receiving either EMLA cream (EMLA group) or 1% lidocaine subcutaneous injection (lidocaine group) in addition to fentanyl and propofol for LPs over 18 months.

Associations among diffusion tensor imaging and neurocognitive function in survivors of pediatric brain tumor: A pilot study.

The purpose of this study was to determine associations among neurocognitive outcomes and white matter integrity in the inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus (IFOF), uncinate fasciculus (UF), and genu of the corpus callosum (gCC) in survivors of pediatric brain tumor and healthy controls (HCs). Eleven survivors (ages 8-16; >2 years post-treatment) and 14 HCs underwent MRI; diffusion tensor imaging tractography (DSI Studio) was used to assess white matter integrity. Participants completed neuropsychological assessment of overall cognitive ability, executive function, processing speed, divided attention, and memory.

Fronto-limbic white matter microstructure, behavior, and emotion regulation in survivors of pediatric brain tumor.

Purpose: After treatment, pediatric brain tumor survivors (PBTS) face emotional and behavioral challenges, perhaps due to tumor or treatment-related changes in brain structures involved in emotion regulation, including those with fronto-limbic connections. We hypothesized that relative to healthy controls (HCs), PBTS would exhibit greater difficulties with behavior and emotional functioning, and display reduced mean fractional anisotropy (mFA) in white matter tracts with fronto-limbic connections including the cingulum bundle (CB), inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus (IFOF), and uncinate fasciculus (UF). We further predicted that mFA would account for variance in the relationship between group and emotional/behavioral outcome.