RATIONALE: Cancer therapies may affect the ability of a child's brain and central nervous system to function normally. Learning to identify which patients will develop complications may improve the ability of doctors to plan cancer treatment and improve patient quality of life.

PURPOSE: This clinical trial is studying neurobehavioral changes in children who have received steroid therapy or intrathecal therapy for acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

OBJECTIVES:

• Compare neurobehavioral functioning, specifically memory, attention, executive function, visual-motor integration, and processing speed, in children previously treated with steroids (prednisone vs dexamethasone) and intrathecal therapy (methotrexate alone vs methotrexate, cytarabine, and hydrocortisone) for childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia.
• Correlate non-treatment risk factors, such as gender, age at diagnosis, and time since termination of prior therapy, with impaired neurobehavioral function in these patients.
• Correlate neurobehavioral complications with quality-of-life of these patients.

OUTLINE: This is a multicenter, cohort study. Patients are assigned to 1 of 2 cohorts (prior treatment per CCG-1922 [prednisone vs dexamethasone] vs prior treatment per CCG-1952 [intrathecal (IT) methotrexate vs IT methotrexate, cytarabine, and hydrocortisone]). Patients in each cohort are stratified according to age at diagnosis, gender, and time since prior treatment termination.

• Cohort A (CCG-1922): Patients undergo physical and neurological examination, neurobehavioral evaluation, and quality of life assessment. Neurobehavioral evaluations assess memory, attention, and executive function.
• Cohort B (CCG-1952): Patients undergo evaluation as above. Neurobehavioral evaluations assess visual-motor integration and processing speed.

PROJECTED ACCRUAL: A total of 448 patients (224 per cohort) will be accrued for this study within 4 years.

DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS:

• Diagnosis of standard-risk childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL)

  • In continuous first remission
  • No history of CNS pathology requiring radiotherapy or surgery

• Prior enrollment on one of the following Children's Cancer Group (CCG) protocols AND terminated therapy at least 1 year ago:

  • CCG-1922 (prednisone vs dexamethasone)

  • CCG-1952 (intrathecal methotrexate vs triple intrathecal therapy)

    • No prior enrollment on CCG-1952 arm III

• No history of pre-existing neurodevelopmental disorder before diagnosis of ALL (e.g., mental retardation, Down syndrome, seizure disorder, or traumatic brain injury)

• No neuropsychological assessment within the past 6 months

PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS:

Age

• 6.5 to 16 years

Performance status

• Not specified

Life expectancy

• Not specified

Hematopoietic

• Not specified

Hepatic

• Not specified

Renal

• Not specified

Other

• Reading, speaking, and listening comprehension of English by patient required (English and/or Spanish by parent)
• No history of very low birth weight (< 1,500 grams)

PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY:

Biologic therapy

• Not specified

Chemotherapy

• See Disease Characteristics

Endocrine therapy

• See Disease Characteristics

Radiotherapy

• See Disease Characteristics

Surgery

• See Disease Characteristics

Other

• Concurrent stimulants allowed

Children previously randomized to (1) dexamethasone instead of prednisone on COG 1922 and (2) intrathecal methotrexate, cytarabine, and hydrocortisone (triple therapy) instead of intrathecal methotrexate alone on COG 1952