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International audience; Background : Despite evidence that pediatric cancer induces a trajectory of parental stress, studies including mothers of children with malignant brain tumors remain scarce. The present work aims to add to the scientific literature by evaluating maternal stress with a French translation of the Pediatric Inventory for Parents (PIP) in a population of mothers whose children have been diagnosed with a brain tumor. Procedure : The mothers of 35 children with malignant brain tumors completed the Pediatric Inventory for Parents (PIP), the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) and the Family Assessment Device (FAD) at a mean time since diagnosis of 2.3 years. Results : The PIP showed good internal consistency and correlated significantly with the STAI and the FAD. Maternal stress scores were higher in younger mothers and in mothers of younger children. Emotional functioning was the most affected domain. Conclusions : Emotional stress as assessed by the PIP in mothers of children with malignant brain tumors is considerable, and should be routinely assessed, in order to implement appropriate specific psychosocial interventions when needed.

International audience; Objective: Studies on parental stress following childhood acquired brain injury (ABI-including brain tumours (BT) and other brain injuries) are scarce. The aim of this study was to assess maternal stress in a sample of children and adolescents diagnosed with severe paediatric ABI.Methods: Seventy-eight French-speaking mothers of 37 with BT and 41 with other ABIs completed the Paediatric Inventory for Parents (PIP), the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) and the Family Assessment Device (FAD) at a mean time since diagnosis of 1.5 years.Results: The PIP correlated significantly with the STAI and the FAD. Socio-demographic factors, such as the age of mother and child, and the mother’s educational level, were correlated with both maternal stress and anxiety. Maternal stress scores were comparable between groups. Emotional functioning was the most markedly affected domain, followed by parental role.Conclusions: Emotional stress as assessed by the PIP in mothers of children with ABI is significant and should motivate specific psychosocial interventions.

International audience; Paediatric CNS tumours are the most common cause of childhood cancer-related morbidity and mortality, and improvements in their diagnosis and treatment are needed. New genetic and epigenetic information about paediatric CNS tumours is transforming the field dramatically. For most paediatric CNS tumour entities, subgroups with distinct biological characteristics have been identified, and these characteristics are increasingly used to facilitate accurate diagnoses and therapeutic recommendations. Future treatments will be further tailored to specific molecular subtypes of disease, specific tumour predisposition syndromes, and other biological criteria. Successful biomaterial collection is a key requirement for the application of contemporary methodologies for the validation of candidate prognostic factors, the discovery of new biomarkers, the establishment of appropriate preclinical research models for targeted agents, a quicker clinical implementation of precision medicine, and for other therapeutic uses (eg, for immunotherapies). However, deficits in organisational structures and interdisciplinary cooperation are impeding the collection of high-quality biomaterial from CNS tumours in most centres. Practical, legal, and ethical guidelines for consent, storage, material transfer, biobanking, data sharing, and funding should be established by research consortia and local institutions to allow optimal collection of primary and subsequent tumour tissue, body fluids, and normal tissue. Procedures for the collection and storage of biomaterials and related data should be implemented according to the individual and organisational structures of the local institutions.

Executive functions (EF) are a complex set of supervisory functions that are involved in the control of mental processes. Burgess and Simons describe EF as those capacities that make people effective in the real world, allowing them to adapt to new situations and to develop and pursue their life goals in a constructive way. EF is an umbrella term, incorporating a range of aspects that are equally important in complex task behaviour, but can be differentially affected by brain damage. Miyake and colleagues applied a factor analytical approach to find out whether core elements of EF could be identified from different tasks. They used standard neuropsychological tests supposed to measure EF in healthy subjects and found three executive components, which they labelled mental flexibility, updating working memory (WM) and inhibition. WM supports inhibitory control, but inhibitory control in turn supports working memory by suppressing irrelevant information from WM limited-capacity workspace.

Background: the relationship between direct assessments of cognitive performance and questionnaires assessing quality of survival (QoS) is reported to be weak-to-nonexistent. Conversely, the associations between questionnaires evaluating distinct domains of QoS tend to be strong. This pattern remains understudied.Methods: in the HIT-SIOP PNET4 randomized controlled trial, cognitive assessments, including Full Scale, Verbal and Performance IQ, Working Memory, and Processing Speed, were undertaken in 137 survivors of standard risk medulloblastoma from four European countries. QoS questionnaires, including self and/or parent reports of the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function, the Health Utilities Index, the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire, and the Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory, were completed in 151survivors.Correlations of direct cognitive assessments, QoS questionnaires, and clinical data were examined in participants with both assessments available (n=86).Results: correlations between direct measures of cognitive performance and QoS questionnaires were weak, except for moderate correlations between the BRIEF Metacognition index (parent-report) and working memory (r=.32) and between health status (self-report) and cognitive outcomes (.35-.44). Correlations among QoS questionnaires were moderate to strong both for parent and self-report (.39-.76). Principal Component Analysis demonstrated that questionnaires and cognitive assessments loaded on two separate factors.Conclusions: we hypothesize that the strong correlations among QoS questionnaires is partially attributable to the positive/negative polarity of all questions of the questionnaires, coupled with the relative absence of disease-specific questions. These factors may be influenced by respondents’ personality and emotional characteristics, unlike direct assessments of cognitive functioning, and should be taken into account in clinical trials.

International audience

International audience