Neuropsychologic performance among children in remission from acute lymphocytic leukemia.

Comprehensive neuropsychologic assessments were done for children in continuous remission from acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL) following either chemotherapy alone (N = 14) or chemotherapy combined with prophylactic cranial radiation (N = 19). Only 5 of 75 neuropsychologic variables were found to differ at the .05 level for these two groups; trends were seen (p less than .10) on two additional variables. The data indicate few if any meaningful differences related to the presence of absence of radiation therapy, although the differences that were seen occurrred on tasks for which other authors have suggested diminished ability as a result of cranial radiation. Additional analysis failed to reveal any effects related to the age at which prophylactic radiation was received.