White Matter Tract Changes in Pediatric Posterior Fossa Brain Tumor Survivors After Surgery and Chemotherapy

Overview

Journal Front Neuroimaging

Date 2023 Aug 9

PMID 37555139

Authors

Jeffrey Tanedo

Niharika Gajawelli

Sharon Guo

Mary Baron Nelson

Natasha Lepore

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Background: Survivors of pediatric posterior fossa brain tumors are susceptible to the adverse effects of treatment as they grow into adulthood. While the exact neurobiological mechanisms of these outcomes are not yet understood, the effects of treatment on white matter (WM) tracts in the brain can be visualized using diffusion tensor (DT) imaging. We investigated these WM microstructural differences using the statistical method tract-specific analysis (TSA). We applied TSA to the DT images of 25 children with a history of posterior fossa tumor (15 treated with surgery, 10 treated with surgery and chemotherapy) along with 21 healthy controls. Between these 3 groups, we examined differences in the most used DTI metric, fractional anisotropy (FA), in 11 major brain WM tracts.

Results: Lower FA was found in the splenium of the corpus callosum (CC), the bilateral corticospinal tract (CST), the right inferior frontal occipital fasciculus (IFOF) and the left uncinate fasciculus (UF) in children with brain tumors as compared to healthy controls. Lower FA, an indicator of microstructural damage to WM, was observed in 4 of the 11 WM tracts examined in both groups of children with a history of posterior fossa tumor, with an additional tract unique to children who received surgery and chemotherapy (left UF).

Conclusions: Our findings indicate that a history of tumor in the posterior fossa and surgical resection may have effects on the WM in other parts of the brain.

References

Palmer S, Glass J, Li Y, Ogg R, Qaddoumi I, Armstrong G . White matter integrity is associated with cognitive processing in patients treated for a posterior fossa brain tumor. Neuro Oncol. 2012; 14(9):1185-93. PMC: 3424215. DOI: 10.1093/neuonc/nos154. View

Ailion A, Hortman K, King T . Childhood Brain Tumors: a Systematic Review of the Structural Neuroimaging Literature. Neuropsychol Rev. 2017; 27(3):220-244. DOI: 10.1007/s11065-017-9352-6. View

Duc N . The role of diffusion tensor imaging metrics in the discrimination between cerebellar medulloblastoma and brainstem glioma. Pediatr Blood Cancer. 2020; 67(9):e28468. DOI: 10.1002/pbc.28468. View

Macartney G, Harrison M, VanDenKerkhof E, Stacey D, McCarthy P . Quality of life and symptoms in pediatric brain tumor survivors: a systematic review. J Pediatr Oncol Nurs. 2014; 31(2):65-77. DOI: 10.1177/1043454213520191. View

Baron Nelson M, ONeil S, Tanedo J, Dhanani S, Malvar J, Nunez C . Brain biomarkers and neuropsychological outcomes of pediatric posterior fossa brain tumor survivors treated with surgical resection with or without adjuvant chemotherapy. Pediatr Blood Cancer. 2020; 68(2):e28817. PMC: 7755691. DOI: 10.1002/pbc.28817. View

Rueckriegel S, Hernaiz Driever P, Blankenburg F, Ludemann L, Henze G, Bruhn H . Differences in supratentorial damage of white matter in pediatric survivors of posterior fossa tumors with and without adjuvant treatment as detected by magnetic resonance diffusion tensor imaging. Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys. 2009; 76(3):859-66. DOI: 10.1016/j.ijrobp.2009.02.054. View

Lao Y, Kang Y, Collignon O, Brun C, Kheibai S, Alary F . A study of brain white matter plasticity in early blinds using tract-based spatial statistics and tract statistical analysis. Neuroreport. 2015; 26(18):1151-4. DOI: 10.1097/WNR.0000000000000488. View

Aleksonis H, Wier R, Pearson M, Cannistraci C, Anderson A, Kuttesch J . Associations among diffusion tensor imaging and neurocognitive function in survivors of pediatric brain tumor: A pilot study. Appl Neuropsychol Child. 2019; 10(2):111-122. DOI: 10.1080/21622965.2019.1613993. View

Smith S, Jenkinson M, Johansen-Berg H, Rueckert D, Nichols T, Mackay C . Tract-based spatial statistics: voxelwise analysis of multi-subject diffusion data. Neuroimage. 2006; 31(4):1487-505. DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2006.02.024. View

10.

Garyfallidis E, Brett M, Amirbekian B, Rokem A, van der Walt S, Descoteaux M . Dipy, a library for the analysis of diffusion MRI data. Front Neuroinform. 2014; 8:8. PMC: 3931231. DOI: 10.3389/fninf.2014.00008. View

11.

Assaf Y, Ben-Sira L, Constantini S, Chang L, Beni-Adani L . Diffusion tensor imaging in hydrocephalus: initial experience. AJNR Am J Neuroradiol. 2006; 27(8):1717-24. PMC: 8139798. View

12.

Filley C, Fields R . White matter and cognition: making the connection. J Neurophysiol. 2016; 116(5):2093-2104. PMC: 5102321. DOI: 10.1152/jn.00221.2016. View

13.

Jacola L, Ashford J, Reddick W, Glass J, Ogg R, Merchant T . The relationship between working memory and cerebral white matter volume in survivors of childhood brain tumors treated with conformal radiation therapy. J Neurooncol. 2014; 119(1):197-205. PMC: 4133306. DOI: 10.1007/s11060-014-1476-4. View

14.

Altieri R, Melcarne A, Junemann C, Zeppa P, Zenga F, Garbossa D . Inferior Fronto-Occipital fascicle anatomy in brain tumor surgeries: From anatomy lab to surgical theater. J Clin Neurosci. 2019; 68:290-294. DOI: 10.1016/j.jocn.2019.07.039. View

15.

Glass J, Ogg R, Hyun J, Harreld J, Schreiber J, Palmer S . Disrupted development and integrity of frontal white matter in patients treated for pediatric medulloblastoma. Neuro Oncol. 2017; 19(10):1408-1418. PMC: 5596166. DOI: 10.1093/neuonc/nox062. View

16.

Basser P, Mattiello J, Lebihan D . MR diffusion tensor spectroscopy and imaging. Biophys J. 1994; 66(1):259-67. PMC: 1275686. DOI: 10.1016/S0006-3495(94)80775-1. View

17.

Sleurs C, Lemiere J, Christiaens D, Billiet T, Peeters R, Sunaert S . Advanced MR diffusion imaging and chemotherapy-related changes in cerebral white matter microstructure of survivors of childhood bone and soft tissue sarcoma?. Hum Brain Mapp. 2018; 39(8):3375-3387. PMC: 6866599. DOI: 10.1002/hbm.24082. View

18.

Ikonomidou C . Chemotherapy and the pediatric brain. Mol Cell Pediatr. 2018; 5(1):8. PMC: 6219996. DOI: 10.1186/s40348-018-0087-0. View

19.

Del Bigio M . Pathophysiologic consequences of hydrocephalus. Neurosurg Clin N Am. 2001; 12(4):639-49, vii. View

20.

Ostrom Q, Gittleman H, Liao P, Vecchione-Koval T, Wolinsky Y, Kruchko C . CBTRUS Statistical Report: Primary brain and other central nervous system tumors diagnosed in the United States in 2010-2014. Neuro Oncol. 2017; 19(suppl_5):v1-v88. PMC: 5693142. DOI: 10.1093/neuonc/nox158. View