Performance of cognitively impaired oncology patients and normal controls on functional MRI tasks

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8023 Background: Cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy have demonstrated cognitive deficits on neuropsychological evaluation and patient-reported measures. Preliminary functional neuroimaging studies have begun to identify correlates of this cognitive decline. Methods: To further examine these neurocognitive changes, 8 right-handed oncology patients (mean 54.6 years, 7/8 female) with cognitive deficits (≥1 SD below age-adjusted mean ≥3 domains on a neuropsychological battery) completed a functional MRI (fMRI). Impaired domains included cognitive efficiency (8/8), working memory (6/8), visuospatial skills (6/8), and delayed memory (5/8). Twelve right-handed cognitively normal age- and gender-matched healthy controls (mean 53.1 years, 11/12 female) completed the same fMRI procedures. The task was a non-verbal, visual n-back task, consisting of fractal stimuli with presentations organized in block design (Ragland et al., 2002). Subjects were cued to the specific task (0, 1, or 2-back) before each block. fMRI was performed on a 3 Tesla scanner and both anatomic (MPRAGE) and functional (echo planar images sensitive to BOLD contrast) images were acquired. Data were analyzed using SPM2. Images underwent standard preprocessing steps and a random effects analysis. Results: Both patients and controls were able to perform all conditions with a high degree of accuracy. A conjunction analysis for the 2-back versus 0-back conditions showed significant common areas of activation for the oncology and control groups in right frontal regions (insula, inferior and middle frontal gyri, frontal eye field, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, and orbitofrontal cortex), midline supplementary motor cortex, and bilateral parietal cortex. Conclusions: Established patterns of brain activation associated with fMRI tasks (Ragland et al., 2002) were replicated among patients and controls. Oncology patients completed the difficult working memory task and showed apparently normal brain activations, despite cognitive impairments. Author Disclosure Employment or Leadership Consultant or Advisory Stock Ownership Honoraria Research Funding Expert Testimony Other Remuneration Ortho Biotech Ortho Biotech