Decades after treatment, childhood brain tumor survivors treated with radiotherapy at younger ages may experience cognitive and socioeconomic burdens, reveals a new study. The findings of the study are published in the journal Cancer.
Therapies for children diagnosed with brain tumors have prolonged the lives of many patients, but survivors may experience a variety of effects from their disease and its treatment.
Brain Tumor
Brain tumors are the abnormal growth of brain cells that may be benign or metastatic. Brain tumors account for about 2.4% of all the tumor diagnosesandare most challenging due to their critically delicate location.
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‘Lifelong surveillance is required for pediatric brain tumor survivors so that they can relieve the long-term cognitive and socioeconomic burden and continue to receive the best interventions during their transition to adulthood and well beyond.’
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To assess such burdens, M. Douglas Ris, Ph.D., of Baylor College of Medicine and Texas Children's Hospital, and his colleagues at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, compared 181 survivors of pediatric low-grade glioma with 105 siblings of cancer survivors who were participating in the Childhood Cancer Survivor Study.
The survivors and siblings all completed a comprehensive battery of standardized cognitive tests and socioeconomic assessments performed at 16 major medical centers in the United States and Canada.
![How to Prevent Memory Loss in Kids With Brain Tumors During Radiotherapy]( "How to Prevent Memory Loss in Kids With Brain Tumors During Radiotherapy")
Pencil beam scanning (PBS), a form of proton beam radiotherapy offers the best chance to preserve memory, reasoning skills and other higher brain functions while treating brain tumors in kids with radiation.
Survivors were a median age of 8 years at the time of diagnosis, and they were a median age of 40 years at the time of assessment. Overall, survivors treated with surgery plus radiotherapy at the site of the tumor had lower estimated IQ scores than survivors treated with surgery only, who had lower scores than siblings. Survivors diagnosed at younger ages had low scores on most of the cognitive measures.
Survivors especially those treated with surgery plus radiotherapy were less educated, earned lower incomes, and had lower prestige occupations than siblings.
"Late effects in adulthood are evident even for children with the least malignant types of brain tumors who were treated with the least toxic therapies available at the time. Also, these neurocognitive and socioeconomic risks are evident many decades after treatment," said Dr. Ris.
"As pediatric brain tumors become more survivable with continued advances in treatments, we need to improve surveillance of these populations so that survivors continue to receive the best interventions during their transition to adulthood and well beyond."
Source: Eurekalert
How to Prevent Memory Loss in Kids With Brain Tumors During Radiotherapy
Pencil beam scanning (PBS), a form of proton beam radiotherapy offers the best chance to preserve memory, reasoning skills and other higher brain functions while treating brain tumors in kids with radiation.
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Survivors were a median age of 8 years at the time of diagnosis, and they were a median age of 40 years at the time of assessment. Overall, survivors treated with surgery plus radiotherapy at the site of the tumor had lower estimated IQ scores than survivors treated with surgery only, who had lower scores than siblings. Survivors diagnosed at younger ages had low scores on most of the cognitive measures.
Survivors especially those treated with surgery plus radiotherapy were less educated, earned lower incomes, and had lower prestige occupations than siblings.
"Late effects in adulthood are evident even for children with the least malignant types of brain tumors who were treated with the least toxic therapies available at the time. Also, these neurocognitive and socioeconomic risks are evident many decades after treatment," said Dr. Ris.
"As pediatric brain tumors become more survivable with continued advances in treatments, we need to improve surveillance of these populations so that survivors continue to receive the best interventions during their transition to adulthood and well beyond."
Source: Eurekalert
Promising Treatment Strategy can Fight Deadly Brain Tumor in Children
ACVR1, an inhibitor of an enzyme slows tumor growth and prolongs survival in an animal model of diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG), a life-threatening brain tumor in kids.
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Brain Tumors can Occur in Children With Common Genetic SyndromeBrain tumors can occur in children and adults with the common genetic syndrome known as neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1), which is a disorder characterized by birthmarks on the skin and benign nerve tumors. | Advertisement
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