Abstract
Predicting functional outcomes after surgery and early adjuvant treatment is difficult due to the complex, extended, interlocking brain networks that underpin cognition. The aim of this study was to test glioma functional interactions with the rest of the brain, thereby identifying the risk factors of cognitive recovery or deterioration. Seventeen patients with diffuse non-enhancing glioma (aged 22–56 years) were longitudinally MRI scanned and cognitively assessed before and after surgery and during a 12-month recovery period (55 MRI scans in total after exclusions). We initially found, and then replicated in an independent dataset, that the spatial correlation pattern between regional and global BOLD signals (also known as global signal topography) was associated with tumour occurrence. We then estimated the coupling between the BOLD signal from within the tumour and the signal extracted from different brain tissues. We observed that the normative global signal topography is reorganised in glioma patients during the recovery period. Moreover, we found that the BOLD signal within the tumour and lesioned brain was coupled with the global signal and that this coupling was associated with cognitive recovery. Nevertheless, patients did not show any apparent disruption of functional connectivity within canonical functional networks. Understanding how tumour infiltration and coupling are related to patients’ recovery represents a major step forward in prognostic development.
Original language | English |
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Article number | 5008 |
Number of pages | 19 |
Journal | Cancers |
Volume | 13 |
Issue number | 19 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 6 Oct 2021 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:This research was supported by the Guarantors of Brain, Cancer Research UK Cambridge Centre, The Brain Tumour Charity and the EMERGIA Junta de Andalucia program. Y.E. is funded by a Royal Society Dorothy Hodgkin Research Fellowship (DHF130100). JMG is funded by the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (España)/FEDER under the RTI2018-098913-B100 project, by the Consejería de Economía, Innovación, Ciencia y Empleo (Junta de Andalucía) and FEDER under CV20-45250, A-TIC-080-UGR18, B-TIC-586-UGR20 and P20-00525 projects. MA was funded by a Cambridge Trust—Yousef Jameel Scholarship. This research was also supported by the NIHR Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre (BRC-1215-20014). SJP (NIHR Career Development Fellowship, CDF-2018-11-ST2-003) is funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) for this research project. The views expressed are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the NIHR or the Department of Health and Social Care.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
Keywords
- Brain tumours
- Cognitive recovery
- Functional MRI
- global signal
- Neurosurgery
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Oncology
- Cancer Research