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

Intellectual, achievement, and behavior evaluations were completedat diagnosis and 1 year later on 16 leukemic (ALL) and 17 solidtumor (ST) patients between 5 and 16 years of age at diagnosis.Rank order correlations between change in psychometric performanceand amount of chemotherapy received were computed for the ALLand ST groups separately. The number of significant correlationsbetween chemotherapy and change in psychometric data did notexceed chance expectations. There were no significant changesin behavior ratings over time for either the ALL or ST patients.Children with ALL younger than 8 years when diagnosed declinedin word recognition, Performance IQ and Full-scale IQ. Similarbut nonsignificant declines were observed in five young ST patients.Both ALL and ST patients over age 8 years when diagnosed hadnonsignificant changes in achievement and IQ performance. Largenegative V-P scores were noted in younger ST patients and ALLpatients of all ages both at diagnosis and 1 year later.