Neurologic Complications in Children with Systemic Cancer

Abstract

Neurologic complications are common in children with cancer. This population is at risk for the neurologic disorders that can affect healthy children, but is also susceptible to central nervous system (CNS) metastases, iatrogenic complications of medical and surgical cancer therapy, and paraneoplastic disorders. With longer survival from more intensive therapies, neurologic complications will probably became even more common An excellent monograph on the neurologic complications of cancer in adults has been published (1), but neurologic complications in children with cancer differs from those in adults because of the particular susceptibilities of the developing brain and the differences in the types of tumors that affect children and adults (2). This chapter reviews the most common chief complaints resulting in pediatric neuro-oncologic consultation and provides an approach to their assessment.KeywordsBrain MetastasisAcute Lymphoblastic LeukemiaNeurologic ComplicationCord CompressionGraft Versus Host DiseaseThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.