Medical Research Project #3
Currently Friends-R-4 is attempting to fund the following medical research project:
Trackwell: A Neuropsychological Screening Program to Identify Cognitive and Academic Difficulties in Patients Treated for Childhood Cancer
Associate Professor David Ashley, Royal Children's Hospital - cost $85,000 in its first year
Background
This study aims to implement a neuropsychological screening battery specifically designed for paediatric cancer patients and to be deliverable within existing outpatient clinics, to children undergoing treatment for leukaemia, lymphoma, brain tumours and osteosarcoma.
The battery includes a range of well-known measures that specifically sample functioning in areas that are commonly affected in this population of children – i.e. attention, working memory and information processing.
The battery takes approximately 50 minutes to complete and therefore potentially offers a feasible approach to early identification of children with neuro-cognitive defects.
This research project hopes to build upon pilot project data being collected in 2009, to conduct a longitudinal study of children with cancer from time of diagnosis up to five year post-diagnosis (with assessments conducted on a yearly basis).
The aim of this study is to examine the trajectory of neuropsychological sequalae in children undergoing cancer treatment and to examine factors that may be associated with poorer outcomes – e.g. psychological factors, behavioural functioning and treatment-related factors such as fatigue.
An additional aspect of the project will be to correlate neuropsychological findings with MRI brain imaging and to undertake epigenetic studies to examine potential causal links with functional neuropsychological and outcomes (funding for these aspects of the project will be sought separately).
This research will significantly contribute to the existing literature examining the neuropsychological impact of common childhood cancer treatments. It will provide crucial information about the rates of learning and behavioural difficulties in these patients and will improve understanding of the trajectory and causes of cognitive sequalae in subsets of children treated for childhood cancer.
Ultimately this increased understanding may lead to earlier identification and intervention with the aim of avoiding significant impairment in the long term.
The cost of this project
is $85,000 in its first year, to be provided by Friends-R-4. 