Cognitive and brain structural changes in a lung cancer population. Academic Article uri icon

Overview

abstract

  • INTRODUCTION: No study has examined structural brain changes specifically associated with chemotherapy in a lung cancer population. The aim of this cross-sectional study was to assess differences in brain structure between small-cell lung cancer patients (C+) following chemotherapy, non-small-cell lung cancer patients (C-) before chemotherapy and healthy controls (HC). METHODS: Twenty-eight small-cell lung cancer patients underwent a neuropsychological assessment and a structural magnetic resonance imaging, including T1-weighted and diffusion tensor imaging to examine gray matter density and white matter (WM) integrity, respectively, 1 month following completion of platinum-based chemotherapy. This group was compared with 20 age and education-matched non-small-cell lung cancer patients before receiving chemotherapy and 20 HC. RESULTS: Both C+ and C- groups exhibited cognitive impairment compared with the HC group. The C+ group performed significantly worse than HC in verbal fluency and visuospatial subtests; C- performed significantly worse than both C+ and HC in verbal memory. Voxel-based morphometry analysis revealed lower gray matter density in the insula and parahippocampal gyrus bilaterally, and left anterior cingulate cortex in C+ compared with HC. Diffusion tensor imaging indices showed focal decreased WM integrity in left cingulum and bilateral inferior longitudinal fasciculus in the C+ group and more widespread decreased integrity in the C- group compared with the HC group. CONCLUSION: This study demonstrates that lung cancer patients exhibit cognitive impairment before and after chemotherapy. Before the treatment, C- showed verbal memory deficits as well as a widespread WM damage. Following treatment, the C+ group performed exhibited lower visuospatial and verbal fluency abilities, together with structural gray matter and WM differences in bilateral regions integrating the paralimbic system.

publication date

  • January 1, 2015

Research

keywords

  • Brain
  • Cognition Disorders
  • Lung Neoplasms

Identity

PubMed Central ID

  • PMC5657249

Scopus Document Identifier

  • 84926420820

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

  • 10.1097/JTO.0000000000000345

PubMed ID

  • 25325778

Additional Document Info

volume

  • 10

issue

  • 1