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Altered regional homogeneity in patients with ovarian cancer treated with chemotherapy: a resting state fMRI study

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Abstract

Many patients treated with chemotherapy for non-central nervous system (CNS) cancers experience cognitive dysfunction. However, few studies have investigated treatment-related neurotoxicity in women with ovarian cancer. The goal of this study was to assess regional brain function in patients with ovarian cancer after first-line chemotherapy. Seventeen patients with ovarian cancer and seventeen healthy controls matched for gender, age and education participated in the study. The patients were evaluated 1–4 months after completion of first line taxane/platinum chemotherapy. All participants underwent resting state functional MRI (rsfMRI) and regional homogeneity (ReHo) indices were calculated. The results showed that patients had significantly decreased average ReHo values in the left middle frontal gyrus, medial prefrontal cortex, and right superior parietal lobule, compared to healthy controls. This is the first rsfMRI study showing ReHo alterations in frontal and parietal regions in patients with ovarian cancer treated with first-line chemotherapy. The findings are overall congruent with prior studies in non-CNS cancer populations and provide supporting evidence for the prevailing notion that frontal areas are particularly vulnerable to the adverse effects of chemotherapy.

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Funding

This research was supported by a Grant from the Leon Levy Foundation to DDC, and in part through the NIH/NCI Cancer Center Support (Grant P30 CA008748, PI: Thompson).

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Author notes

  1. Maria Kryza-Lacombe

    Present address: San Diego Joint Doctoral Program in Clinical Psychology, San Diego State University/University of California, San Diego, CA, USA

  2. Behroze A. Vachha and Suril Gohel have contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Radiology, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, 1275 York Ave, New York, NY, 10065, USA

    Behroze A. Vachha

  2. Brain Tumor Center, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, 1275 York Ave, New York, NY, 10065, USA

    Behroze A. Vachha

  3. Department of Radiology, Weill Medical College of Cornell University, 525 East 68th Street, New York, NY, 10065, USA

    Behroze A. Vachha

  4. Department of Health Informatics, Rutgers University School of Health Professions, 65 Bergen Street, Newark, NJ, 07107, USA

    Suril Gohel

  5. Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY, USA

    James C. Root

  6. Department of Neurology, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, 1275 York Avenue, New York, NY, 10065, USA

    Maria Kryza-Lacombe & Denise D. Correa

  7. Department of Medicine, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY, USA

    Martee L. Hensley

  8. Department of Neurology and Neuroscience, Weill Medical College of Cornell University, 525 East 68th Street, New York, NY, 10065, USA

    Denise D. Correa

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Contributions

Conception and study design (DDC, BV), data collection/acquisition (DDC, JR, MKL, MH), data analysis (SG), statistical analysis (SG), interpretation of results (BV, SG, JR, DDC), manuscript preparation and editing (DDC, BV, SG, JR). All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Denise D. Correa.

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Conflict of interest

Dr. Vachha reports no conflict of interest. Dr. Gohel reports no conflict of interest. Dr. Root reports no conflict of interest. Ms. Kryza-Lacombe reports no conflict of interest. Dr. Hensley serves/served (last two years) as Advisory Board Member for GSK, Tesaro and Lilly Oncology, consultant for Merck, symposium chair and speaker at the GOG Foundation, faculty speaker and CME faculty for Research to Practice, and received chapter author royalty from Up to Date; her spouse is an employee at Sanofi. Dr. Correa serves on the Editorial Board of Neuro-Oncology Practice.

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Vachha, B.A., Gohel, S., Root, J.C. et al. Altered regional homogeneity in patients with ovarian cancer treated with chemotherapy: a resting state fMRI study. Brain Imaging and Behavior 16, 539–546 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11682-021-00525-5

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