Genetic Predictors of Intellectual and White Matter Outcome in Pediatric Brain Tumor Patients

Advances in cancer treatment in the last thirty years have led to radically improved long-term survival rates for pediatric brain tumor patients. However, many of these children develop long-term neuropsychological deficits as a result of treatment. There exists a large variability in post-treatment outcome, such that certain patients develop long-term functional deficits while others do not. While current research has elucidated the negative effects of treatment on brain structure and function in these patients, little is known about genetic factors that may predict better or worse outcome following treatment. We explored the relationship between targeted genetic polymorphisms and treatment-related outcome in a sample of pediatric brain tumor patients. Using a machine learning algorithm, we identified five peroxisomal proliferator-actiavted receptor (PPAR) polymorphisms significantly associated with changes in intellectual outcome in these patients. Our findings suggest that having a variant allele of these polymorphisms predicts worse intellectual outcome following treatment.M.A