Sabine Deprez1, Judith Verhoeven1, Mathieu Vandenbulcke2, Frederik Amant3, Refika Yigit3, Joris Vandenberghe2, Marie-Rose Christiaens3, Caroline Sage1, Ronald Peeters1, Alexander Leemans4, Wim Van Hecke5, Stefan Sunaert1
1Department of Radiology, University Hospitals of the Catholic University of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium; 2Department of Psychiatry, University Hospitals of the Catholic University of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium; 3Multidisciplinary Breast Centre, University Hospitals of the Catholic University of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium; 4CUBRIC (School of Psychology), Cardiff University,, Cardiff, UK; 5Visionlab (Department of Physics), University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium
Cognitive impairment is a potential adverse effect of systemic cancer treatment. In this study, DTI and neuropsychological testing were used to study treatment-induced structural changes in cerebral WM and correlation of DTI metrics with cognitive functioning in seventeen post-chemotherapy breast cancer patients and nineteen controls. Voxel-based two-sample T-tests revealed decreased FA in frontal, temporal and cerebellar WM and increased MD in frontal and parietal WM in patients compared to controls. FA correlated with attention tests and WAIS-Digit Symbol in the superior longitudinal fasciculus and the sagittal stratum, respectively. These results suggest a link between WM integrity and treatment-induced impaired cognition.