Childhood brain cancer survivours have ongoing cognitive problems and achieve lower levels of education, employment and income than their siblings and survivours of other types of cancer.

The neurocognitive issues reported by childhood brain cancer survivours were associated with significantly poorer adaptation to adult life, including lower achievement in education, full-time employment and income. They were also less likely to be married.

Researchers studied 785 childhood brain cancer survivours 16 years after their diagnosis to assess the functioning of their brain compared to5,870 survivours of cancers such as leukaemia, Hodgkin’s disease and bone tumours, and 379 siblings of childhood brain cancer survivours. Four factors were assessed in all the participants such as task efficiency, emotional regulation, organisation and memory.

It was found that childhood brain cancer survivours reported significantly higher neurocognitive dysfunction than their siblings or other cancer survivours. All areas of cognitive function were affected in childhood brain cancer survivours, including organisation and emotional regulation.

The most commonly reported problems were in memory and efficiency, such as forgetting what they’re doing in the middle of a task and being slower than others at completing work. More than half of childhood brain cancer survivours reported significant difficulty with at least one task efficiency item, a rate three times higher than among their siblings.