Women who undergo radiation therapy (RT) to treat childhood brain tumor are more likely to suffer long-term cognitive impairment compared to male survivors, reveals a new study. The findings of the study are published in the Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society.
"Some of the survivors are doing quite well, going on to graduate degrees or medical school, " said Tricia King, professor of psychology and neuroscience and senior author of the study.
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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‘Women with a pediatric brain tumor are more negatively affected by life-saving radiation treatments than men.’
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"Others are quite devastated by the treatments. So, there's a huge range in outcomes, and we are trying to look at the various factors involved that may explain these differences."
"People are living longer in part because of advancements in diagnoses and treatment. Instead of research focused only on whether or not someone lives, we are now looking at the quality of survival. What's happened now is the push for precision medicine that will provide individualized treatment to optimize outcomes. Our team is interested in identifying critical factors that may contribute to better long-term outcomes of survivors."
![Brain Tumor in Children]( "Brain Tumor in Children")
An abnormal growth of cells in the brain is called brain tumor. Most tumors arise within the brain (primary). They can be benign or cancerous.
Tanya Panwala, a lead author of the study, said the researchers focused on sex differences.
"That was something that was very understudied in the research," said Panwala, who recently graduated from Georgia State after working as an undergraduate researcher in King's lab.
The team recruited 45 adult survivors of posterior fossa childhood brain tumors and had them complete a series of standardized tests to measure intelligence, attention, working memory, and independent-living skills. Posterior fossa tumors, which are in or near the bottom of the skull, are the most common form of brain tumors in children, accounting for as much as 55 percent overall.
The tests showed female survivors were more affected by radiation therapy than their male counterparts in basic life skills such as reading, memory, social interactions, self-care and cognitive processing speed.
"We found that females were more negatively affected by the life-saving radiation treatments than males," King said. "This showed up in their activities of daily living in the community. So, the more challenging, higher-order skills that people need to be contributing members of society is disrupted and more so for females that had radiation than the male survivors."
The research points to the need for future studies to investigate the mechanisms for these sex differences in order to personalize treatment plans best, King said.
"Because there are sex-specific differences in survivors, these get washed out when you just look at the group of tumor survivors as a whole," King said.
"To advance science, we areally need to look at these groups separately. There are lots of hypotheses of why that maybe, but we need to look at the biological factors that are making females more vulnerable to life-saving radiation treatment."
Source: Eurekalert
Brain Tumor in Children
An abnormal growth of cells in the brain is called brain tumor. Most tumors arise within the brain (primary). They can be benign or cancerous.
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Tanya Panwala, a lead author of the study, said the researchers focused on sex differences.
"That was something that was very understudied in the research," said Panwala, who recently graduated from Georgia State after working as an undergraduate researcher in King's lab.
The team recruited 45 adult survivors of posterior fossa childhood brain tumors and had them complete a series of standardized tests to measure intelligence, attention, working memory, and independent-living skills. Posterior fossa tumors, which are in or near the bottom of the skull, are the most common form of brain tumors in children, accounting for as much as 55 percent overall.
The tests showed female survivors were more affected by radiation therapy than their male counterparts in basic life skills such as reading, memory, social interactions, self-care and cognitive processing speed.
"We found that females were more negatively affected by the life-saving radiation treatments than males," King said. "This showed up in their activities of daily living in the community. So, the more challenging, higher-order skills that people need to be contributing members of society is disrupted and more so for females that had radiation than the male survivors."
The research points to the need for future studies to investigate the mechanisms for these sex differences in order to personalize treatment plans best, King said.
"Because there are sex-specific differences in survivors, these get washed out when you just look at the group of tumor survivors as a whole," King said.
"To advance science, we areally need to look at these groups separately. There are lots of hypotheses of why that maybe, but we need to look at the biological factors that are making females more vulnerable to life-saving radiation treatment."
Source: Eurekalert
Gender Differences Exist in Brain Tumors
Deadly brain tumors such as glioblastomas exhibit sex-specific differences. Males are more prone to these tumors than females. The response to therapy and survival is better in females than in males.
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 World Brain Tumor DayEvery year, World Brain Tumor Day is observed on June 8. First started by the German Brain Tumor Association (Deutsche Hirntumorhilfe e.V.) in 2000 to raise public awareness and educate people about brain tumor. | Advertisement
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