Colleen Dockstader1, Todd Cunningham1,
Eric Bouffet2, Nicole Law1, Normand Laperriere3,
Suzanne Laughlin4,
1Psychology, The Hospital
for Sick Children, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; 2Haematology/Oncology,
The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; 3Haematology/Oncology,
Princess Margaret Hospital, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; 4Diagnostic
Imaging, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; 5Hematology,
Oncology, & Transplant Program, Alberta Children's Hospital, Calgary,
Ontario, Canada; 6Haematology/Oncology, BC Children's Hospital,
Vancouver, Ontario, Canada; 7Pediatric Neurology &
Oncology/Hematology/BMT Programs, BC Children's Hospital, Vancouver, BC,
Canada; 8Psychology, BC Children's Hospital, Vancouver, Ontario,
Canada; 9Radiology, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
Cranial-spinal radiation (CSR) therapy for tumor treatment is associated with significant damage to the brains white matter. We wished to determine which regions are most affected by CSR in children treated for medulloblastomas. We compared regional values of white matter integrity in 24 healthy children and 16 patients. Regions with the lowest white matter integrity were the regions that received the highest radiation doses. This suggests that radiation directly resulted in white matter injury in a dose-dependent manner. Our findings may serve as an index of how dose gradient relates to white matter injury when considering treatment in this clinical population.