QOS-16THE INFLUENCE OF YOUNG AGE AT DIAGNOSIS FOR COGNITIVE PERFORMANCE IN BRAIN TUMOR PATIENTS BEFORE TREATMENT

Abstract

Pediatric cancer survivors have a high risk for a wide range of cognitive dif-ficulties. Such dysfunctions can be caused by the lesion itself and/or its surgical removal, as well as subsequent treatments (chemo-or radiation therapy). In a recent study, we found that survivors of brain tumors performed significantly worse in tests of working memory, verbal memory and attention compared to children with cancer without central nervous system (CNS) involvement even before the start of medical treatment (Margelisch et al., 2015). Within our ongoing project, wenow further aim to investigate the influence of age at diagnosis on neuropsychological functions in these patient samples. So far, 47 children (20 younger children [7-12 years] and 27 older children [13-17 years]) were included and evaluated with an extensive neuropsychological battery. Atwo-wayMANOVA revealed that younger children performed significantly worse (all ps