Guidelines for Complications of Cancer Treatment Vol VIII Part B

Suggested Reading:A) Neuropsychological function1. Neuropsychological Functioning after Surgery inChildren Treated for Brain Tumor. Carpentieri SC,Waber DP, Pomeroy SL, Scott RM, Goumnerova LC,Kieran MW. Neurosurgery 2003;52: 1348-57.OBJECTIVE: To describe the neuropsychological functioningof children treated with surgery only for localized brain tumorsin Dana-Farber Cancer Institute Protocol 92-077. Subsequentreports will describe the neuropsychological functioning ofchildren treated with surgery and stereotactic radiation therapyon Dana-Farber Cancer Institute 92-077.METHODS: The intellectual functioning of 106 patients wasevaluated within 3 months after surgery. An in-depthassessment of the neuropsychological functioning, includingan impairment index, was conducted for a subset of 77 schoolagechildren (6-16 yr old) across six functional domains.Descriptive statistics were generated; binomial distributionanalyses were performed to assess whether the proportion ofindividuals with impaired performance on each measureexceeded normative expectations. The impairment indexassessed whether poor performance was attributable to a fewchildren or reflected the performance of the cohort as a whole.RESULTS: Although the Full Scale IQ was within normativeexpectations, the Verbal IQ was higher than the PerformanceIQ with 45% of individuals showing a significant discrepancy(P < 0.01) between these scales. There was an increasedprevalence of poor performance for measures of motor output,verbal memory, and visuospatial organization. The distributionof the impairment index indicated moderate impairment acrossthe school-age cohort rather than severe impairment in a fewpatients.355