Improving Learning and School Functioning in Latino Children With Cancer

PRIMARY OBJECTIVES: I. Determine the effectiveness of an enhanced parenting intervention, high-intensity intervention program (HIP), on pediatric cancer survivors' learning and school health-related quality of life (HRQOL) outcomes up to 12 months post enrollment. II. Determine the effectiveness of HIP on the "pro-learning" efficacy of parents of pediatric cancer survivors up to 12 months post enrollment. III. Examine the extent to which the parent's increases in personal efficacy and use of "pro-learning" behaviors correlate with the child's school HRQOL and academic performance. IV. Obtain preliminary data on the relationships between family stress and the Val66Met polymorphism of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) with neurocognitive and health-related quality of life (HRQOL) outcomes in Latino children treated with CNS-directed therapies for cancer. V. Conduct preliminary analysis on the interaction between family stress and the BDNF Met polymorphism when predicting cognitive and HRQOL outcomes in Latino children treated for cancer. EXPLORATORY OBJECTIVES: I. Explore the associations between neurocognitive performance and polymorphisms in candidate genes previously reported to explain cognitive variability in childhood cancer survivors (e.g., the catechol-O-methyltransferase Val158Met polymorphism and the nitric oxide synthase \[NOS3\] 894T allele) or involved in the stress response (e.g., the Serotonin transporter rs25531 and the Glucocorticoid receptor rs6190). OUTLINE: Parents or caregivers are randomized to 1 of 2 arms. ARM I: Parents or caregivers attend standard of care lower intensity intervention program (LIP) consisting of a meeting to review results of a neurocognitive evaluation and to discuss recommendations for optimal learning and school performance for 1 session. ARM II: Parents or caregivers attend HIP consisting of individual parental skill training sessions with a bilingual therapist over 60-90 minutes every 2 weeks for a total of 8 sessions. After study enrollment, patients are followed up for 12 months.