Thesis (M.Sc.) - Cairo University - National Cancer Institute - Department of Pediatric Oncology

Introduction: Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) survivors experience cognitive deficits that can last for many years after the completion of chemotherapy. The etiology of this problem is largely unknown. However some risk factors were documented as age at diagnosis, gender and intensity of chemotherapy. Objective: This study aimed to assess cognitive functioning in childhood patients with ALL who have been treated with chemotherapy. Patients and methods: In the study 95 child aged between 6 and 12 years old, completed the Arabic version of Wechsler Intelligence Scale for children (WISC III), to assess cognitive functions and correlation between cognitive function scores and different variables; demographic, protocol given, duration of therapy{u2026}etc. Sixty-one children were ALL survivors at the pediatric oncology department at National cancer institute NCI, Cairo university compared to thirty-four were Control group consisted of healthy children from the same age group. Study patients have successfully accomplished their treatment protocol and were in complete remission during the evaluation for {u2265} 2 years under follow up without relapse and no pre-diagnosis history of neurodevelopmental disorder or psychiatric disorders which were excluded by children behavior Check List. Results: Study patients obtained WISC-III Total Intelligence Quotient (IQ) scores significantly below levels for their matched controls. The difference between patients and controls was significant (p < 0.001) for the following measures: Total IQ, Verbal IQ, Performance IQ scores, (84.8± 10 vs 98.7±10.3), (94.4±13.5 vs 110.1±13.6) and (76.6±10 vs 85.5±8.5) respectively. Among ALL survivors sex was considered a risk factor where females performed worse than males in verbal IQ with significant p value 0.045

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