Oculomotor Deficits after Chemotherapy in Childhood

Advances in the diagnosis and treatment of pediatric malignancies have substantially increased the number of childhood cancer survivors. However, reports suggest that some of the chemotherapy agents used for treatment can cross the blood brain barrier which may lead to a host of neurological symptoms including oculomotor dysfunction. Whether chemotherapy at young age causes oculomotor dysfunction later in life is unknown. Oculomotor performance was assessed with traditional and novel methods in 23 adults (mean age 25.3 years, treatment age 10.2 years) treated with chemotherapy for a solid malignant tumor not affecting the central nervous system. Their results were compared to those from 25 healthy, age-matched controls (mean age 25.1 years). Correlation analysis was performed between the subjective symptoms reported by the chemotherapy treated subjects (CTS) and oculomotor performance. In CTS, the temporal control of the smooth pursuit velocity (velocity accuracy) was markedly poorer (p<0.001) and the saccades had disproportionally shorter amplitude than normal for the associated saccade peak velocity (main sequence) (p = 0.004), whereas smooth pursuit and saccade onset times were shorter (p = 0.004) in CTS compared with controls. The CTS treated before 12 years of age manifested more severe oculomotor deficits. CTS frequently reported subjective symptoms of visual disturbances (70%), unsteadiness, light-headedness and that things around them were spinning or moving (87%). Several subjective symptoms were significantly related to deficits in oculomotor performance. To conclude, chemotherapy in childhood or adolescence can result in severe oculomotor dysfunctions in adulthood. The revealed oculomotor dysfunctions were significantly related to the subjects’ self-perception of visual disturbances, dizziness, light-headedness and sensing unsteadiness. Assessments of oculomotor function may, thus, offer an objective method to track and rate the level of neurological complications following chemotherapy

Decreased postural control in adult survivors of childhood cancer treated with chemotherapy

© 2016 The Authors. Published by Nature Research. This is an open access article available under a Creative Commons licence. The published version can be accessed at the following link on the publisher’s website: https://doi.org/10.1038/srep36784The objective of cancer treatment is to secure survival. However, as chemotherapeutic agents can affect the central and peripheral nervous systems, patients must undergo a process of central compensation. We explored the effectiveness of this compensation process by measuring postural behaviour in adult survivors of childhood cancer treated with chemotherapy (CTS). We recruited sixteen adults treated with chemotherapy in childhood for malignant solid (non-CNS) tumours and 25 healthy age-matched controls. Subjects performed posturography with eyes open and closed during quiet and perturbed standing. Repeated balance perturbations through calf vibrations were used to study postural adaptation. Subjects were stratified into two groups (treatment before or from 12 years of age) to determine age at treatment effects. Both quiet (p = 0.040) and perturbed standing (p ≤ 0.009) were significantly poorer in CTS compared to controls, particularly with eyes open and among those treated younger. Moreover, CTS had reduced levels of adaptation compared to controls, both with eyes closed and open. Hence, adults treated with chemotherapy for childhood cancer may suffer late effects of poorer postural control manifested as reduced contribution of vision and as reduced adaptation skills. These findings advocate development of chemotherapeutic agents that cause fewer long-term side effects when used for treating children.The authors’ wish to acknowledge the financial supported from the Swedish Medical Research Council (grant nr. 17x-05693), the Medical Faculty, Lund University, Sweden and the Skåne County Council’s research and development foundation.Published versio

Elevated visual dependency in young adults after chemotherapy in childhood

Chemotherapy in childhood can result in long-term neurophysiological side-effects, which could extend to visual processing, specifically the degree to which a person relies on vision to determine vertical and horizontal (visual dependency). We investigated whether adults treated with chemotherapy in childhood experience elevated visual dependency compared to controls and whether any difference is associated with the age at which subjects were treated. Visual dependency was measured in 23 subjects (mean age 25.3 years) treated in childhood with chemotherapy (CTS) for malignant, solid, non-CNS tumors. We also stratified CTS into two groups: those treated before 12 years of age and those treated from 12 years of age and older. Results were compared to 25 healthy, age-matched controls. The subjective visual horizontal (SVH) and vertical (SVV) orientations was recorded by having subjects position an illuminated rod to their perceived horizontal and vertical with and without a surrounding frame tilted clockwise and counter-clockwise 20° from vertical. There was no significant difference in rod accuracy between any CTS groups and controls without a frame. However, when assessing visual dependency using a frame, CTS in general (p = 0.006) and especially CTS treated before 12 years of age (p = 0.001) tilted the rod significantly further in the direction of the frame compared to controls. Our findings suggest that chemotherapy treatment before 12 years of age is associated with elevated visual dependency compared to controls, implying a visual bias during spatial activities. Clinicians should be aware of symptoms such as visual vertigo in adults treated with chemotherapy in childhood

Bcg vaccination as a cause of multifocal osteomyelitis in a 12-year-old girl

A 12-year-old girl with multifocal skeletal sclerosis has been investigated. She was BCG vaccinated at birth and developed regional lymphadenitis in her left groin at two months of age. She was healthy until approximately 10 years of age, after which deficient height and weight gain occurred. BCG-itis was diagnosed in skeleton lesions. No evidence of immunodeficiency was found in the patient. After antituberculous treatment, the skeleton lesions, previously seen at bone scan, had disappeared. There has been a dramatic effect on her weight gain, growth and general well-being

Disturbed pubertal growth in girls treated for acute lymphoblastic leukemia

Pubertal growth was studied in 10 girls previously treated for acute lymphoblastic leukemia. The average age at menarche was 12.2 years, which is significantly lower (p less than 0.01) than the expected 13.1 years. Compared with normal girls, these girls showed a subnormal (p less than 0.05) peak height velocity during the second year before menarche. The remaining growth before menarche as well as the total postmenarchal growth was close to the normal average. The average final standing height was 1 SD less than what would be expected from their height 1 year after the cessation of therapy. A relative growth hormone deficiency in combination with early onset of puberty could account for this loss in final height

Moderate dose cranial radiotherapy causes central adrenal insufficiency in long-term survivors of childhood leukaemia.

Acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) is the most common childhood malignancy. The survival rate in the Scandinavian countries is now around 85 %. ALL patients treated with cranial radiotherapy (CRT) are at risk for growth hormone deficiency (GHD), but little is known about other pituitary insufficiencies, e.g. ACTH. Adult ALL patients (median age at study 25 years), treated with 24 Gy (18-30) of CRT during childhood were investigated. We performed an insulin tolerance test (ITT) to evaluate cortisol secretion. We measured basal serum ACTH and cortisol levels before and after 5 years of GH therapy. 14 out of 37 (38 %) ALL patients had a subnormal cortisol response to an ITT (257-478 nmol/L) while there was no significant difference in basal cortisol levels between 44 patients and controls (P > 0.3). Female, but not male ALL patients had significantly lower ACTH levels compared to controls (P = 0.03). After 5 years of GH therapy only male ALL patients had significantly lowered basal plasma cortisol (P = 0.02). ALL survivors, treated with a moderate dose CRT, have a central adrenal insufficiency 20 years after diagnosis. An increased awareness of the risk for an adrenal insufficiency is of importance and life-long surveillance of the entire hypothalamic-pituitary axis is recommended in these patients

Blunted pubertal growth after leukemia: a new pattern of growth hormone insufficiency

Growth, age at menarche and spontaneous GH secretion were studied in girls after treatment for acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). These girls had normal prepubertal growth but subnormal pubertal growth. Mean final height was 1 SD less than expected before puberty. The average age at menarche was significantly lower than the normal mean for Swedish girls. The mean 24-hour GH secretion was severely blunted and there was no increase during puberty. We suggest that girls treated for ALL, including CNS irradiation, have a relative GH insufficiency which becomes clinically obvious only when the girls cannot respond to the increased demands for GH in puberty

Young age at diagnosis is a risk factor for negative late socio-economic effects after acute lymphoblastic leukemia in childhood.

BACKGROUND: The increasing number of survivors after childhood cancer requires characterization of the late complications of these diseases and their treatment. We examined a large number of possible socio-economic late effects following treatment for acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) in order to identify factors leading to a poor outcome. PROCEDURE: All individuals who had been diagnosed with ALL and who were alive in January 2007 (n = 213; men = 107) were identified from a database of all patients with cancer before the age of 18 in Southern Sweden from 1970 to 1999. For each subject, 50 matched controls were identified from the Swedish Population Register. Information on marital status, children, education, employment, income, and support from the community was obtained from Statistics Sweden. RESULTS: At the ages of 25 and 30, survivors of ALL had attained a lower level of education than controls. At the age of 30, they were less often employed (70% vs. 82%, P = 0.019), less often married (19% vs. 32%, P = 0.019), and had children to a lesser extent (31% vs. 47%, P = 0.011) than controls. We identified young age at diagnosis as a risk factor for adverse outcome in the majority of the socio-economic variables studied, apart from the known risk of cranial irradiation treatment. Furthermore, female survivors had a greater risk of achieving a lower level of education than both male survivors and controls. CONCLUSIONS: Young age at diagnosis, as well as treatment with cranial irradiation, is a risk factor for socio-economic late effects after treatment for ALL in childhood. Pediatr Blood Cancer (c) 2010 Wiley-Liss, Inc