Chemoradiation impairs normal developmental cortical thinning in medulloblastoma.
Medulloblastoma patients are treated with surgery, radiation and chemotherapy. Radiation dose to the temporal lobe may be associated with neurocognitive sequelae. Longitudinal changes of temporal lobe cortical thickness may result from neurodevelopmental processes such as synaptic pruning. This study applies longitudinal image analysis to compare developmental change in cortical thickness in medulloblastoma (MB) patients who were treated by combined modality therapy to that of cerebellar juvenile pilocytic astrocytoma (JPA) patients who were treated by surgery alone. We hypothesized that the rates of developmental change in cortical thickness would differ between these two groups. This retrospective cohort study assessed changes in cortical thickness over time between MB and JPA patients. High-resolution magnetic resonance (MR) images of 14 MB and 7 JPA subjects were processed to measure cortical thickness of bilateral temporal lobe substructures. A linear mixed effects model was used to identify differences in substructure longitudinal changes in cortical thickness. The left temporal lobe exhibited overall increased cortical thickness in MB patients relative to JPA patients who showed overall cortical thinning (mean annual cortical thickness change: MB 0.14 mm/year versus JPA -0.018 mm/year across all substructures), particularly in the inferior temporal lobe substructures (p < 0.0001). The cortical thickness change of the right temporal lobe substructures exhibited similar, though attenuated trends (p = 0.002). MB patients exhibit overall increased cortical thickness rather than cortical thinning as seen in JPA patients and as expected in normal cortical development. These observations are possibly due to chemoradiation induced-disruption of normal neuronal mechanisms. Longitudinal image analysis may identify early biomarkers for neurocognitive function with routine imaging.
['Kundu|Palak|P|', 'Li|Matthew D|MD|', 'Durkee|Ben Y|BY|', 'Hiniker|Susan M|SM|', 'Bush|Karl|K|', 'von Eyben|Rie|R|', 'Monje|Michelle L|ML|', 'Yeom|Kristen W|KW|', 'Donaldson|Sarah S|SS|', 'Gibbs|Iris C|IC|']
D000293:Adolescent D001932:Brain Neoplasms D002540:Cerebral Cortex D059248:Chemoradiotherapy D002648:Child D002675:Child, Preschool D005260:Female D007839:Functional Laterality D006801:Humans D007223:Infant D008137:Longitudinal Studies D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging D008297:Male D008527:Medulloblastoma D011832:Radiation Injuries D012189:Retrospective Studies D055815:Young Adult
Chemoradiation Cortical thinning Medulloblastoma Neurocognitive