Achievement and Intelligence Test-Retest Performance in Pediatric Cancer Patients at Diagnosis and One Year Later

Abstract

Intellectual, achievement, and behavior evaluations were completed at diagnosis and 1 year later on 16 leukemic (ALL) and 17 solid tumor (ST) patients between 5 and 16 years of age at diagnosis. Rank order correlations between change in psychometric performance and amount of chemotherapy received were computed for the ALL and ST groups separately. The number of significant correlations between chemotherapy and change in psychometric data did not exceed chance expectations. There were no significant changes in behavior ratings over time for either the ALL or ST patients. Children with ALL younger than 8 years when diagnosed declined in word recognition, Performance IQ and Full-scale IQ. Similar but nonsignificant declines were observed in five young ST patients. Both ALL and ST patients over age 8 years when diagnosed had nonsignificant changes in achievement and IQ performance. Large negative V-P scores were noted in younger ST patients and ALL patients of all ages both at diagnosis and 1 year later.