Abstract #4285

The Effect of Bevacizumab on Normal Appearing White Matter Fibers: A Diffusion Tensor Imaging (Dti) Study

Moran Artzi^1,2, Deborah T. Blumenthal^3,4, Felix Bokstein^3,4, Benjamin W. Corn,^4,5, Palmon Mika¹, Orna Aizenstein⁶, Dafna Ben Bashat¹

¹The Wohl Institute for Advanced Imaging, Brain Imaging Center, Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, Tel-Aviv, Israel; ²Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel-Aviv University , Tel-Aviv, Israel; ³Neuro-Oncology Service, Oncology Division, Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, Tel-Aviv, Israel; ⁴Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel-Aviv University, Tel-Aviv, Israel; ⁵Radiation Oncology Unit, Oncology Division, Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, Tel-Aviv, Israel; ⁶Department of Radiology, Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, Tel-Aviv, Israel

Combined chemo-radiation therapy (RT) is the standard first-line treatment for glioblastoma (GB). Recently, antiangiogenic-drugs such as bevacizumab have become routine second-line-therapy for patients with recurrent-GB; however the effects of this agent on the normal appearing white-matter (NAWM) are yet unknown. In this work we scanned patients with primary brain tumors before and after RT and during bevacizumab therapy. DTI was used to evaluate NAWM changes compared to healthy controls. Changes in diffusivity values were detected following RT but not during bevacizumab-therapy. Those results support that post-radiation changes occur, without evidence for additional WM toxicity from bevacizumab-therapy.