• Marieke A de Ruiter, Antoinette Y N Schouten-Van Meeteren, Rosa van Mourik, Tieme W P Janssen, Juliette E M Greidanus, Jaap Oosterlaan, and Martha A Grootenhuis.
• Psychosocial Department, Emma Children's Hospital AMC, room A3-241, Meibergdreef 9, Amsterdam 1105 AZ, The Netherlands. m.a.deruiter@amc.nl
• Bmc Cancer. 2012 Dec 6; 12: 581.

BackgroundNeurotoxicity caused by treatment for a brain tumor is a major cause of neurocognitive decline in survivors. Studies have shown that neurofeedback may enhance neurocognitive functioning. This paper describes the protocol of the PRISMA study, a randomized controlled trial to investigate the efficacy of neurofeedback to improve neurocognitive functioning in children treated for a brain tumor.Methods/DesignEfficacy of neurofeedback will be compared to placebo training in a randomized controlled double-blind trial. A total of 70 brain tumor survivors in the age range of 8 to 18 years will be recruited. Inclusion also requires caregiver-reported neurocognitive problems and being off treatment for more than two years. A group of 35 healthy siblings will be included as the control group. On the basis of a qEEG patients will be assigned to one of three treatment protocols. Thereafter patients will be randomized to receive either neurofeedback training (n=35) or placebo training (n=35). Neurocognitive tests, and questionnaires administered to the patient, caregivers, and teacher, will be used to evaluate pre- and post-intervention functioning, as well as at 6-month follow-up. Siblings will be administered the same tests and questionnaires once.DiscussionIf neurofeedback proves to be effective for pediatric brain tumor survivors, this can be a valuable addition to the scarce interventions available to improve neurocognitive and psychosocial functioning.Trial RegistrationClinicalTrials.gov NCT00961922.

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