Neurocognitive function of children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia and long-term disease-free survival and related influencing factors

Abstract:

Objective To investigate the neurocognitive function of children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and long-term disease-free survival and related influencing factors.Methods A total of 40 ALL children with long-term disease-free survival were enrolled as study group, and 40 healthy children were enrolled as control group. The Chinese Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (C-WISC), continuous performance test (CPT), and Stroop test software were used for the evaluation of all children. Neurocognitive function was compared between groups and influencing factors were analyzed.Results Compared with the control group, the study group had significantly lower full intelligence quotient, verbal intelligence quotient, and performance intelligence quotient in C-WICS (P < 0.05) and significantly higher numbers of mistakes and misses in CPT (P < 0.05). There were no significant differences in the numbers of correct answers, mistakes, and misses of word-color consistency between the study group and the control group (P > 0.05), while the study group had significantly higher numbers of mistakes and misses of word-color contradiction and irrelevance (P < 0.05). The total dose of high-dose methotrexate and ALL risk classification were associated with the reduction in intelligence quotient, and children's younger age at diagnosis of ALL was associated with the higher numbers of misses and mistakes. Girls tended to have a significantly lower performance intelligence quotient than boys (P < 0.05).Conclusions ALL children with long-term disease-free survival have neurocognitive impairment, which may be associated with the dose of chemotherapeutic drugs, age at diagnosis, and sex.