Neurologic complications of pediatric systemic cancer

Abstract

Each year in the United States, an average of one to two children per 10,000 develop cancer. Survival rates for children with cancer have continued to increase quite dramatically over the last several decades. Many cancer patients have symptomatic neurologic complications during the course of their illness, and neurologic problems are a common reason for hospitalization of both adult and pediatric patients with systemic cancer. Therapeutic improvements, longer survival times, and improved imaging modalities have increased both the amount of time at risk and the possibility of detecting such complications. The incidence, timing, etiology and treatment of neurologic sequelae in children with cancer has not been extensively evaluated. The purpose of this review is to outline the major tumor-and treatment-related neurologic sequelae of pediatric cancer. © 2008 Humana Press, Totowa, NJ.