title: Cognitive outcome in children and adolescents treated for acute lymphoblastic leukaemia with chemotherapy only.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To examine cognitive outcome in children and adolescents with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) in remission, treated with central nervous system prophylactic chemotherapy only.
  
  
  METHODS
  Thirty-five children and adolescents, age 8.4-15.3 years in long-term remission from ALL, 4.2-12.4 years post diagnosis, without relapse and no pre-diagnosis history of neurodevelopmental disorder were compared with 35 healthy controls matched for gender and age, on measures of intellectual functioning Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Third Edition (WISC-III).
  
  
  RESULTS
  All but two of the ALL survivors treated by chemotherapy only obtained WISC-III Total Intelligence Quotient (IQ) scores in the normal range (M = 95.3), but their scores were significantly below levels for their matched controls and below normative standards for WISC-III. The difference between patients and controls was significant at the p < 0.001 level for the following measures: Total IQ, Verbal IQ, Verbal Comprehension Index, Freedom from Distraction Index and three verbal subtest scores.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The results indicate long-term sequelae in global cognitive functions, and indicate that verbal function, processing speed, attention and complex visual-spatial problem solving may be affected in the chemotherapy only group.
authors.affiliation: Neuropsychological Clinic, Department of Psychology, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway. Elisabeth.Lofstad@svt.ntnu.no
authors.forename: G Elisabeth
authors.initials: GE
authors.lastname: Lofstad
authors.forename: Trude
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Reinfjell
authors.forename: Knut
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Hestad
authors.forename: Trond H
authors.initials: TH
authors.lastname: Diseth
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000970:Antineoplastic Agents / Q000009:adverse effects* / Q000627:therapeutic use; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002648:Child; D003071:Cognition / Q000187:drug effects*; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000139:chemically induced*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007361:Intelligence Tests; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D054198:Precursor Cell Lymphoblastic Leukemia-Lymphoma / Q000188:drug therapy*
chemical_list: D000970:Antineoplastic Agents