Structural and functional changes in the brain tissue of "chemo(radiation)-brain" cancer survivors

Structural and functional changes in the brain tissue of "chemo(radiation)-brain" cancer survivors

Lay summary

The aim of our work is to investigate the predictive strength of MRI biomarkers for the early prediction and non-invasive assessment of cognitive and other eloquent functions impairment after chemoradiation for cancer treatment. Data from the UK Biobank will enable the definition of structural and functional imaging biomarkers for the control group and provide a strong foundation for understanding any deleterious therapy effect of brain function and structure. The main rationale of the study is the current lack of solid evidence on the role of MRI in assessing chemo(radiation)- induced brain changes as well as the predictive ability that emanates from the wealth of features that can be computed from the imaging data. To this end, the overarching goal of our project is to shed light in the structural and functional substrates for the cognitive symptoms and compute robust predictive imaging biomarkers. Being able to early predict non-invasively treatment-induced changes will enable actionable insights in patient care empowering clinicians to personalised treatments or avoid treatments that may cause severe cognitive dysfunction leading to an overall increase in the quality-of-life of patients after chemo-radiation-therapy.