Neurocognitive Effects of Radiation Therapy in Pediatric Brain Tumor Survivors

Abstract

This study characterizes the neurocognitive late effects of treatment in pediatric brain tumor survivors by examining patterns of executive function, coping, emotional outcomes, and brain activation. We examined associations among these variables and their relationship to prefrontal cortex activation in 20 children and adolescents ages 8 to 16‐ years old who completed treatment for a pediatric brain tumor with 20 healthy controls matched on age and sex. We found partial support for our hypothesis that survivors perform worse than healthy controls on these domains and that activation patterns during executive function tasks differ. No causal relationship among executive function, coping, and emotional outcome variables was found. Findings suggest that neurocognitive deficits in survivors may be associated with impairment in prefrontal cortex integrity.