Processing speed, attention, and working memory after treatment for medulloblastoma: An international, prospective, and longitudinal study

Abstract

Purpose: The current study prospectively examined processing speed (PS), broad attention (BA), and working memory (WM) ability of patients diagnosed with medulloblastoma over a 5-year period. Patients and Methods: The study included 126 patients, ages 3 to 21 years at diagnosis, enrolled onto a collaborative protocol for medulloblastoma. Patients were treated with postsurgical risk-adapted craniospinal irradiation (n = 36 high risk [HR]; n = 90 average risk) followed by four cycles of high-dose chemotherapy with stem-cell support. Patients completed 509 neuropsychological evaluations using the Woodcock-Johnson Tests of Cognitive Abilities Third Edition (median of three observations per patie..