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Effects of supratentorial and infratentorial tumor location on cognitive functioning of children with brain tumor

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Abstract

Purpose

Effects of tumor location on cognitive performance of patients with brain tumor are controversial: some studies reported higher risks related to supratentorial locations, some to infratentorial locations, and still others did not find any differences. We aimed to address this issue by comparing school-aged children with supratentorial or infratentorial tumor with respect not only to cognitive outcomes but also to the associations between core cognitive domains and academic abilities.

Methods

32 children with infratentorial tumor and 22 with supratentorial tumor participated in the study. To detect relationships among cognitive domains, we tested which neuropsychological variable(s) predicted academic skills, controlling for the effects of radiotherapy and time since diagnosis.

Results

Radiotherapy and time since diagnosis, but not tumor location, predicted cognitive outcomes. Radiotherapy negatively influenced attention and executive functioning, as well as reading speed and arithmetic operations accuracy. Unexpectedly, longer time since diagnosis was associated with improvement in attention and reading speed. Tumor location showed an effect on the relationships between core cognitive domains and academic skills: verbal and visual-spatial memory influenced reading and mathematical performance in supratentorial patients; in infratentorial patients, an only effect of visual-spatial memory on mathematical performance was detected.

Conclusions

Tumor location seems not to influence cognitive performance, while radiotherapy constitutes a key risk factor for cognitive impairment. Attentional and reading abilities may improve over time, possibly due to the weakening of cancer care effects. Different patterns of cognitive associations seem to characterize supratentorial and infratentorial patients, probably associated with different neuroplastic reorganization processes after tumor occurrence.

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Funding

This work was supported by Scientific Institute, IRCCS E. Medea, Bosisio Parini, Lecco Italy (Progetto di Ricerca 5x1000, #111) and by the Italian Ministry of Health (Ricerca Corrente 2019).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Scientific Institute, IRCCS E. Medea, Bosisio Parini, Lecco, Italy

    Claudia Corti, Cosimo Urgesi, Alessandra Bardoni & Geraldina Poggi

  2. Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience, Department of Languages and Literatures, Communication, Education and Society, University of Udine, Udine, Italy

    Cosimo Urgesi

  3. Scientific Institute, IRCCS E. Medea, San Vito al Tagliamento, Pordenone, Italy

    Cosimo Urgesi

  4. Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori, Milano, Italy

    Maura Massimino & Lorenza Gandola

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  1. Claudia Corti
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  2. Cosimo Urgesi
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  3. Maura Massimino
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  4. Lorenza Gandola
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Correspondence to Claudia Corti.

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All procedures performed in this study were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed consent

In our Scientific Institute, at the moment of the clinical evaluation of children, parents are proposed to sign an informed consent to allow data treatment for research. Informed consent was obtained from all parents of individual participants included in the study.

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Corti, C., Urgesi, C., Massimino, M. et al. Effects of supratentorial and infratentorial tumor location on cognitive functioning of children with brain tumor. Childs Nerv Syst 36, 513–524 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00381-019-04434-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00381-019-04434-3

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