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Altered temporal-parietal morphological similarity networks in non-small cell lung cancer patients following chemotherapy: an MRI preliminary study

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Abstract

Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) accounts for more than 85% of all lung cancer cases, and chemotherapy-related brain changes (known as “chemobrain”) in NSCLC patients were found in previous studies. However, the effects of platinum-based chemotherapy on brain structural networks are still unclear. Structural magnetic resonance imaging (sMRI) data were collected from 32 NSCLC patients following platinum-based chemotherapy, 36 NSCLC patients without chemotherapy, and 39 healthy controls. Clinical physiological indicators of patients were collected. Then, morphological similarity networks were constructed using MRI data, and topological properties were calculated using graph theory method. Differences between three groups were investigated using one-way ANOVA and two-sample t-test, and relations between topological properties and clinical physiological indicators were calculated. We found that degree and nodal efficiency in temporal-parietal networks were significantly reduced in NSCLC patients following platinum-based chemotherapy compared to healthy controls/patients without chemotherapy (F-test, p < 0.001; post hoc t-test, p < 0.01, Bonferroni corrected). These changes (p < 0.05) were positively correlated with clinical measures, including thrombocytes, granulocytes and hemoglobin, and were negatively correlated with measures of triglycerides and cholesterol levels. Network properties including clustering coefficient (F(2,104) = 41.435, p < 0.001), number of K-edges (F(2,104) = 40.304, p < 0.001), density of K-edges (F(2,104) = 40.304, p < 0.001), global efficiency (F(2,104) = 42.585, p < 0.001) and small-world (F(2,104) = 37.132, p < 0.001) were also significantly reduced (post hoc t-test, p < 0.01, Bonferroni corrected). These results indicate that platinum-based chemotherapy might cause cerebrovascular damage and clinical indicators’ changes, which then cause the properties of morphological similarity networks’ changes in the temporal and parietal lobes. This study may help us better understand the “chemobrain” in NSCLC patients.

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Data availability

The datasets used in this study are available on request to the corresponding author.

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Funding

The present study was financially supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology of the People’s Republic China (No. 2017YFC0113904), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 61527815, 81861128001), the CAMS Innovation Fund for Medical Sciences (2019-I2M-5–039), the Sichuan Science and Technology Program (2018JZ0073, 2017SZ0004, 2021YJ0167) and the Science and Technology Bereau of Chengdu (No. 2021YF0501659SN).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Sichuan Cancer Hospital & Institute, Sichuan Cancer Center, Cancer Hospital Affiliate to School of Medicine, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China

    Gong Chen, Chuan Wu, Yuan Liu, Zengyi Fang, Liping Luo, Xin Lai, Weidong Wang & Li Dong

  2. MOE Key Lab for Neuroinformation, School of Life Science and Technology, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China

    Gong Chen, Yuan Liu & Li Dong

  3. Research Unit of NeuroInformation, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Chengdu, 2019RU035, China

    Li Dong

  4. Sichuan Institute for Brain Science and Brain-Inspired Intelligence, Chengdu, 611731, China

    Li Dong

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  1. Gong Chen
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  2. Chuan Wu
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  3. Yuan Liu
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Contributions

Conceived and designed the work: Li Dong and Weidong Wang. Analyzed data: Gong Chen and Chuan Wu. Acquired the data: Chuan Wu, Yuan Liu, Zengyi Fang, Liping Luo and Xin Lai. Wrote the manuscript: Gong Chen. All authors revised the work for important intellectual content. All authors have read and approved the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Weidong Wang or Li Dong.

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Chen, G., Wu, C., Liu, Y. et al. Altered temporal-parietal morphological similarity networks in non-small cell lung cancer patients following chemotherapy: an MRI preliminary study. Brain Imaging and Behavior 16, 2543–2555 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11682-022-00709-7

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