A Quantitative Meta-Analysis of Neurocognitive Sequelae in Survivors of Pediatric Brain Tumors

Background. Deficits in neurocognitive functioning are an important area of late effects in survivors of pediatric brain tumors, but a quantitative analysis of the magnitude of these deficits has yet to be conducted. Procedure. The purpose of the current article is to provide a comprehensive meta-analysis of the literature on long-term neurocognitive effects found in these survivors. Results. Results indicated significant deficits in both narrow and broad indices of neurocognitive functioning, and the overall magnitude of the effects across all domains ranged from small to large in magnitude (g = 0.45 to -1.43) with a large mean overall effect size of g = 0.91. Conclusions. These findings underscore the importance of monitoring the neurocognitive late effects in survivors of pediatric brain tumors, and the need for more consistent consideration of demographic, diagnostic, and treatment-related variables in future research to allow for examination of factors that may moderate these deficits. Pediatr Blood Cancer. 2010;55:525-531. (C) 2010 Wiley-Liss, Inc.