Abstract
EGFR-TKI was the standard care for metastatic NSCLC patients harboring positive EGFR mutation, which might inhibit EGF signaling pathway and consequently have effect on differentiation, maturation and rehabilitation of neural cells. For the first time, we evaluated the dynamic changes of white matter lesion (WML) and gray matter volume (GMV) among such patients based on series of MRI images. We retrospectively identified 778 patients with pathologically diagnosed advanced NSCLC receiving first-generation EGFR-TKIs in our hospital from 2010 to 2017, and 75 patients without brain metastasis and else comorbidity (hypertension, etc.) were analyzed. The modified Scheltens visual scale were performed to evaluate the changes of WML based on the series (baseline, 12 months' point and 24 months' point) of MRI images, and CBM (cluster-based morphometry) method based on SPM12 were adopted to identify GMV loss. The statistical methods were performed using SPSS software 22.0. During the 24-month EGFR-TKI treatment, the patient's WML visual scores showed a progressive worsen. Comparing to the baseline (6.680±3.636), the scores were significantly changed at the 12 months' point (8.650±3.857; Mean scores increasing 1.973, 95% CI 1.595-2.352, p<0.001) and changed more obviously at the 24 months' point (10.110±3.854; Mean scores increasing 3.427, 95% CI 2.979-3.874, p<0.001), respectively. Also, the significant GMV loss were found in subregions of the right occipital lobe (mean decrease 76.714, 95% CI 40.739-112.690), left occipital lobe (mean decrease 93.476, 95% CI 37.483-149.469) and left basal ganglia (mean decrease 37.571, 95% CI 21.576-53.567), respectively (all p<0.005, the cluster level FDR<0.05). Dynamic structural analysis of series brain MRI images showed the significant worsen of the WML and GMV loss in patients with advanced NSCLC receiving EGFR-TKIs chronically. Perspective studies are warranted to verify its impact on the cognitive deficiency and hypomnesis among these patients in future.
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