A new study provides novel insights into the cognitive effects of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and of chemotherapeutic treatment in long-term survivors of ALL. The findings from comparative studies of structural and functional connectome organization, showing that connectome disruption is associated with delayed neurodevelopment, were published online on August 1, 2018 in an article in Brain Connectivity, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. You may click on the following link to read the full-text article free on the Brain Connectivity website through September 27, 2018 (https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/10.1089/brain.2017.0574). (Editor’s Note: A connectome is a comprehensive map of neural connections in the brain, and may be thought of as its "wiring diagram.” More broadly, a connectome would include the mapping of all neural connections within an organism's nervous system.) In the article entitled "Brain Network Connectivity and Executive Function in Long-Term Survivors of Childhood Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia," Kevin Krull, PhD, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Memphis, Tennessee and a team of researchers from St. Jude's and the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas, reported poor global connectivity and lower information exchange and network integration in study participants with executive dysfunction - compared to those without - which is one of the most consistently observed deficits observed in this population. The study included 161 long-term survivors of ALL who were 8-21 years of age.Login Or Register To Read Full Story