Presurgical assessment of cognitive function in pediatric brain tumor patients: feasibility and initial findings.

BACKGROUND: Establishing a presurgical baseline of neurocognitive functioning for pediatric brain tumor patients is a high priority to identify level of functioning prior to medical interventions. However, few studies have obtained adequate samples of presurgery assessments.
METHODS: This study examines the feasibility of completing tests to assess pre-surgical neurocognitive functioning in 59 identified pediatric brain tumor patients.
RESULTS: Eighty-five percent of patients (n = 50) were referred by the neurosurgery team before surgery and 83% of patients (n = 49) enrolled in the study. A full battery, including both performance-based and parent-report measures of neurocognitive function, was completed for 54% (n = 32) of patients. Rates of completion for either parent-report or performance-based measures were 68% (n = 40) and 69% (n = 41), respectively. While the performance-based assessment fell within the average range (M = 95.4, SD = 14.7, 95% CI, 90.7-100.0), 32% of participants had scores one or more standard deviations below the mean, or twice the expected rate. Parent-reports indicated higher level of concern than the general population (M = 55.4, SD = 11.3, 95% CI, 51.8-59.0) and found that 35% fell one or more standard deviations above the mean, or more than twice the expected rate.
CONCLUSIONS: Results suggest it is feasible to conduct pre-surgical assessments with a portion of pediatric brain tumor patients upon diagnosis and these results compare favorably with prior research. However, nearly half of identified patients did not receive a full test battery. Identifying barriers to enrollment and participation in research are discussed as well as recommendations for future research.