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Original Article
Changes of resting-state brain functional activities in breast cancer patients after neoadjuvant chemotherapy: a short-term longitudinal study
HU Yixin  YU Feng  ZHANG Jiuquan  TANG Yu  DENG Yongchun  YU Hong  TAN Yong  LIU Daihong 

Cite this article as: Hu YX, Yu F, Zhang JQ, et al. Changes of resting-state brain functional activities in breast cancer patients after neoadjuvant chemotherapy: a short-term longitudinal study[J]. Chin J Magn Reson Imaging, 2022, 13(2): 31-36. DOI:10.12015/issn.1674-8034.2022.02.007.


[Abstract] Objective To explore the short-term longitudinal changes of spontaneous and synchronous brain functional activity in newly diagnosed breast cancer patients after the first cycle of neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC).Materials and Methods A total of thirty-six breast cancer patients with NAC were enrolled. Resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) and neuropsychological tests were performed at the baseline before NAC (timepoint 0, TP0) and after the first cycle of NAC (time point 1, TP1). Amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (ALFF) and seed-based functional connectivity (FC) analysis were conducted to assess intrinsic brain activity in all participants. Paired sample t test was used for longitudinal comparison, and the correlation between rs-fMRI parameters and neuropsychological test scores was analyzed.Results Compared with TP0, the Self-Rating Anxiety Scale (SAS) scores of breast cancer patient at TP1 was significantly decreased (P<0.05), and the scores of other neuropsychological tests were not significantly different between the two timepoints. The ALFF values of the right middle frontal gyrus, the right insula and the left dorsolateral superior frontal gyrus at TP1 were significantly decreased (voxel level P<0.001, cluster level P<0.05), and the FC between left dorsolateral frontal gyrus and the right middle frontal gyrus were significantly increased at TP1 (voxel level P<0.005, cluster level P<0.05). In addition, the ALFF value of the left dorsolateral frontal gyrus at TP0 was significantly positively correlated with the difference between TP0 and TP1 in the Self-Rating Depression Scale (SDS) score (ρ=0.429, P=0.016). The difference in FC z value between the left dorsolateral frontal gyrus and the right middle frontal gyrus between TP0 and TP1 was significantly positively correlated with the difference in trail making test A (TMT-A) time cost between TP0 and TP1 (ρ=0.443, P=0.012).Conclusions NAC may affect spontaneous and synchronous brain function activity immediately in breast cancer patients, involving executive function and emotion-related brain regions.
[Keywords] amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations;functional connectivity;resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging;breast cancer;neoadjuvant che motherapy

HU Yixin1   YU Feng2   ZHANG Jiuquan1*   TANG Yu1   DENG Yongchun2   YU Hong1   TAN Yong1   LIU Daihong1  

1 Department of Radiology, Chongqing University Cancer Hospital, Chongqing 400030, China

2 Breast Center, Chongqing University Cancer Hospital, Chongqing 400030, China

Zhang JQ, E-mail: zhangjq_radiol@foxmail.com

Conflicts of interest   None.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 82071883); Chongqing Medical Research Project of Combination of Science and Medicine (No. 2021MSXM035); 2020 SKY Imaging Research Fund of the Chinese International Medical Foundation (No. Z-2014-07-2003-24).
Received  2021-09-27
Accepted  2021-12-28
DOI: 10.12015/issn.1674-8034.2022.02.007
Cite this article as: Hu YX, Yu F, Zhang JQ, et al. Changes of resting-state brain functional activities in breast cancer patients after neoadjuvant chemotherapy: a short-term longitudinal study[J]. Chin J Magn Reson Imaging, 2022, 13(2): 31-36. DOI:10.12015/issn.1674-8034.2022.02.007.

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