Childs Nerv Syst (2015) 31:569–580 DOI 10.1007/s00381-015-2635-4
ORIGINAL PAPER
Morphological brain lesions of pediatric cerebellar tumor survivors correlate with inferior neurocognitive function but do not affect health-related quality of life Rajiv Kumar Khajuria & Friederike Blankenburg & Ines Wuithschick & Stefan Rueckriegel & Ulrich-Wilhelm Thomale & Michael Mansour & Pablo Hernáiz Driever
Received: 6 September 2014 / Accepted: 3 February 2015 / Published online: 17 February 2015 # Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2015
Abstract Purpose We aimed to determine whether extent of morphological brain injury in pediatric cerebellar tumor survivors correlates with neurocognitive function and health-related quality of life (HrQoL). Methods Seventeen cerebellar pilocytic astrocytoma (cPA) and 17 medulloblastoma (MB) survivors were examined for HrQoL, intelligence using the German version of the WISCIII, attention, working memory, and visual motor coordination. MRI scans were analyzed for extent of posterior fossa brain tissue loss. Results We found significant correlations between amount and extent morphological brain lesions of pediatric cerebellar tumor survivors and several cognitive impairments including intelligence and attention in both patient groups. These were in total more pronounced in MB patients when compared to Rajiv Kumar Khajuria, Friederike Blankenburg and Ines Wuithschick contributed equally to this work. R. K. Khajuria : F. Blankenburg : I. Wuithschick : S. Rueckriegel : P. H. Driever (*) Pediatric Neurooncology Program, Department of Pediatric Oncology and Hematology, Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Augustenburger Platz 1, D-13353 Berlin, Germany e-mail:
[email protected] U.
