By Beth Kurt, MD, pediatric oncologist with the Spectrum Health Medical Group and director of the After Care and Transition program for childhood cancer survivors at Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital

I was intrigued by a recent article in the Journal of Pediatric Psychology published online in early February. The article reports the results of the first prospective study of the cognitive, physical and social development of infants and toddlers undergoing cancer treatment.

The researchers conducted age-appropriate neuropsychological testing in 61 children with non-central nervous system cancers who were 42 months or younger and compared the results to similar testing in matched controls. The testing occurred while the children were in the midst of treatment.

The study sponsored by the National Institute of Child Health and Development, was conducted on children in Italy. Based on the test scores, the researchers found that the cancer cohort tended to have significant development deficits in cognitive aspects such as attention and memory, and in motor skills, compared to the control group (P<0.001), although there were no differences between groups in terms of social and emotional development.

This study is important because it adds to an area of research that is relatively thin: the effects of cancer and its treatment on neurocognitive development. Still, I would like to see data on these children’s neurocognitive and motor milestones after they finish their treatment, data I’m sure will be forthcoming.

Nonetheless, this study reminds us—both oncologists and primary care physicians, who provide a great deal of non-cancer-related care to young children—that we can’t ignore cognitive, motor, and social development in these children just because they are sick. We need to treat the whole child, not just the illness.

As community physicians, you play an important role in this. You can encourage parents to engage their children in non-medically related activities that they would be doing if the child weren’t sick. Reading out loud. Drawing pictures. Playing games. Taking walks. Tossing a ball. You can also connect them with community resources available to support development, including  programs through Part C of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). In Michigan, the program is called Early On.

The big takeaway from this study is that we could all be better at placing emphasis on getting these kids into developmental services earlier rather than later. As the authors of the study noted: “If not addressed adequately, the effects of early problems can spread, affecting many aspects of children’s development in significant ways.”