Study on Neurologic and Cognitive Dysfunction in Breast Cancer Patients Undergoing Chemotherapy with Resting State fMRI

Abstract

The paper uses clinical neuropsychological testing methods and resting state functional MRI technology to investigate whether chemotherapy can cause cognitive impairment and/or changes in local brain activity in breast cancer patients. In the thesis, 21 breast cancer patients (stage Ⅰ-Ⅲ) who had not undergone radiotherapy and adjuvant chemotherapy were confirmed by clinical surgery and pathology, with an average age of (50.14±13.12) years. Perform 6 neuropsychological tests before chemotherapy and 1 month after chemotherapy, conventional horizontal axis T2-weighted fluid attenuation inversion recovery (T2-FLAIR) sequence, plane echo imaging blood oxygen level dependent (EPI-Bold) functional sequence collection. DPARSF software package was used to analyse the low frequency amplitude (ALFF) of resting functional MRI data. The SPSS17.0 software package was used for statistical analysis. One month after the completion of chemotherapy, the Stroop word test and interference test scores, digit span back test, auditory word learning delay 5min memory scores of breast cancer patients were significantly different than those before chemotherapy. One month after chemotherapy, the brain areas with increased ALLF in breast cancer patients include: left inferior temporal gyrus, right middle temporal gyrus, left middle temporal and upper gyrus, and bilateral praecuneus. In breast cancer patients, memory, attention, executive function and processing speed are reduced in the short term after conventional chemotherapy. Chemotherapy changes the neural activity of the resting local brain areas, mainly the increased activity of the bilateral anterior cuneiform and middle temporal gyrus, which is the brain area that constitutes the default network (DMN).