Tumor location and neurocognitive impairment in adult survivors of pediatric brain tumors: A report from the St. Jude Lifetime Cohort (SJLIFE).

Abstract

9531 Background: Follow-up guidelines identify supratentorial tumor location as a risk factor for poor neurocognitive outcomes during childhood; yet few studies have systematically compared long-term cognitive outcomes between adult survivors of childhood infratentorial and supratentorial brain tumors. Methods: Neurocognitive functions were evaluated in 130 adult survivors of pediatric brain tumors (58 supratentorial and 72 infratentorial, mean [SD] current age = 27.4 years [5.2], age at diagnosis = 8.6 years [4.6], and time since diagnosis = 18.8 years [4.8]) participating in the SJLIFE long-term follow-up protocol. Age-adjusted standard scores for measures of intelligence, attention, memory, processing speed, and executive functioning were calculated, with clinical impairment defined as scores <10th percentile. Odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were calculated using multivariable logistic regression models to examine associations between neurocognitive functions and tumor location. Results: As a group, survivors performed below average across multiple neurocognitive domains, including full scale IQ (mean=88.1; SD=18.2), with 34% demonstrating impaired IQ. Survivors of infratentorial tumors were more likely to be impaired on measures of focused attention (OR=2.19, 95% CI=1.03-4.65) and fine motor dexterity (OR=2.62, 95% CI=1.21-5.66) compared to survivors of supratentorial tumors. After adjusting for sex, age at diagnosis, shunt placement and cranial radiation (yes/no), infratentorial tumor location was only associated with reduced performance on a task of visual abstract reasoning (OR=3.76, 95% CI=1.40-10.1). Cranial radiation therapy was independently associated with impaired short-term memory (OR=15.6, 95% CI=1.64-147.8) and processing speed (OR=3.86, 95% CI=1.15-13.0). Conclusions: Tumor location was not associated with neurocognitive impairment after adjusting for treatment exposures. To further delineate potential differences associated with tumor location, future studies will examine factors including radiation dose/volume, extent of surgical resection, and medical complications.