Originally published September 8 2005
Brain cancer therapy can lower IQ scores and reading skills in young children
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Young children who receive irradiation therapy for a form of brain cancer known as Medulloblastoma are more likely than older children to experience impaired reading skills or lower IQ scores.
The researchers found that the greatest rates of decline in IQ and reading skills occurred in patients who were younger than 7 years old at diagnosis.
Patients who were at either high or average risk of treatment failure suffered significant loss of reading skills over time following treatment.
The study used "risk-adapted" radiation therapy in which the dose of radiation was adjusted according to whether the patient's cancer had already spread and how much tumor was left following initial surgery to remove the cancer.
Patients in the study were classified as high risk (HR, 37 patients) or average risk (AR, 74 patients) depending on whether they had those risk factors.
Gajjar is the senior author of a report on this study that appears in the August 20 issue of Journal of Clinical Oncology.
In addition to confirming that younger age increases the risk of neurocognitive deficits, the current study also allowed the researchers to develop a way to predict the number of IQ points that would be lost by both HR and AR patients depending on whether they were older (at least 7 years of age) or younger (less than 7 years) at time of diagnosis and treatment.
The investigators are now using results of this study to identify and help children in need of special training to enhance their cognitive functioning following treatment for medulloblastoma.
In addition, the investigators conducted neurocognitive testing of children for up to six years after diagnosis--that is, both before and after treatment, he added.
Moreover, no other such previous prospective study (a study following patients over the course of time) has compared the outcome of children receiving risk-adapted radiation therapy doses.
These images are combined with computer-controlled radiation beams and meticulous positioning of the treatment table on which the patient lies.
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