RESEARCH UPDATE
How methylphenidate medication may help preserve intellectual function
At OSCAR’s, we’re committed to funding research that makes a real difference to the lives children with brain tumours and we have an exciting update from the Great North Children’s Hospital in Newcastle, where groundbreaking work is helping to improve outcomes for children who have survived brain tumours.
Over the last few years Assistant Psychologist Alex Hagan and Dr Sarah Verity have been researching ways to reduce the cognitive challenges many young people face after treatment. Their latest findings offer real hope: methylphenidate medication may help preserve intellectual function in childhood brain tumour survivors, potentially reducing the long-term impairment that affects so many young lives.
Thanks to support from one of our partners in York, Inner Space Stations, we were able to fund Alex to attend the SIOP Brain Tumour Group conference in Porto, Portugal, where he shared these important findings with an international audience of researchers and clinicians who are shaping the future of childhood cancer survivorship across Europe.
“Funding from OSCAR’s provided us with the incredible opportunity to share our methylphenidate research with a large European audience shaping childhood brain tumour survivorship across the continent.”
Alex and Sarah’s work looks at using methylphenidate medication to reduce the attentional deficit and slowed cognitive speed found in many children after radiation therapy and chemotherapy treatment. The paper that Alex published this year offers evidence that methylphenidate has even more benefit than solely its known effects upon attention.
The team found that using methylphenidate over the long term may help survivors of childhood brain tumour preserve their intellectual function. This offers the possibility that a medication could reduce the level of long-term impairment that many children show after treatment. Sarah told us: “Whilst much more research is needed in this area, this is a truly exciting finding and we were so pleased to be able to share this with our colleagues in survivorship research across Europe.
We couldn’t do this work, or be involved in the international collaborations that we are, without the support of charities like OSCAR’s”.
Alex said: “Funding from OSCAR’s provided us with the incredible opportunity to share our methylphenidate research with a large European audience shaping childhood brain tumour survivorship across the continent. Support from OSCAR’s has been instrumental in advancing research aimed at improving long-term outcomes for childhood survivors, work we are eager to build upon through future collaboration”.
