The golden standard of treating Small Cell Lung Cancer (SCLC) entails application of platinum-based chemotherapy, is often accompanied by Prophylactic Cranial Irradiation (PCI), which have been linked to neurotoxic side-effects in cognitive functions. The related existing neuroimaging research mainly focuses on the effect of PCI treatment in life quality and expectancy, while little is known regarding the distinct adverse effects of chemotherapy. In this context, a multimodal MRI analysis based on structural and functional brain data is proposed in order to evaluate chemotherapy-specific effects on SCLC patients. Data from 20 patients (after chemotherapy and before PCI) and 14 healthy controls who underwent structural MRI, DTI and resting state fMRI were selected in this study. From a structural aspect, the proposed analysis included volumetry and thickness measurements on structural MRI data for assessing gray matter dissimilarities, as well as deterministic tractography and Tract-Based Spatial Statistics (TBSS) on DTI data, aiming to investigate potential white matter abnormalities. Functional data were also processed on the basis of connectivity analysis, evaluating brain network parameters to identify potential manifestation of functional inconsistencies. By comparing patients to healthy controls, the obtained results revealed statistically significant differences, with the patients’ brains presenting reduced volumetry/thickness and fractional anisotropy values, accompanied by prominent differences in functional connectivity measurements. All above mentioned findings were observed in patients that underwent chemotherapy.

治疗小细胞肺癌 (SCLC) 的黄金标准需要应用基于铂的化学疗法，通常伴随着与认知功能中的神经毒性副作用有关的预防性颅脑照射 (PCI)。现有的相关神经影像学研究主要集中在PCI治疗对生活质量和预期的影响，而对化疗的明显不良反应知之甚少。在这种情况下，提出了基于结构和功能脑数据的多模式 MRI 分析，以评估化疗对 SCLC 患者的特异性影响。本研究选取了 20 名患者（化疗后 PCI 前）和 14 名接受结构 MRI、DTI 和静息状态 fMRI 的健康对照的数据。从结构上看，拟议的分析包括对结构 MRI 数据进行体积和厚度测量以评估灰质差异，以及对 DTI 数据进行确定性纤维束成像和基于束的空间统计 (TBSS)，旨在调查潜在的白质异常。还在连接分析的基础上处理功能数据，评估大脑网络参数以识别功能不一致的潜在表现。通过将患者与健康对照进行比较，获得的结果显示出统计学上的显着差异，患者的大脑呈现出减少的体积/厚度和分数各向异性值，伴随着功能连接测量的显着差异。在接受化疗的患者中观察到所有上述发现。