Abstract #2473

Regional Evaluation of White Matter Injury in Children Treated with Cranial-Spinal Radiation for Medulloblastomas

Colleen Dockstader¹, Todd Cunningham¹, Eric Bouffet², Nicole Law¹, Normand Laperriere³, Suzanne Laughlin⁴, Douglas Strother⁵, Christopher Fryer⁶, Marie-Eve Briere⁵, Juliette Hukin⁷, Dina McConnell⁸, Fang Liu¹, Conrad Rockel⁹, Donald Mabbott¹

¹Psychology, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; ²Haematology/Oncology, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; ³Haematology/Oncology, Princess Margaret Hospital, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; ⁴Diagnostic Imaging, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; ⁵Hematology, Oncology, & Transplant Program, Alberta Children's Hospital, Calgary, Ontario, Canada; ⁶Haematology/Oncology, BC Children's Hospital, Vancouver, Ontario, Canada; ⁷Pediatric Neurology & Oncology/Hematology/BMT Programs, BC Children's Hospital, Vancouver, BC, Canada; ⁸Psychology, BC Children's Hospital, Vancouver, Ontario, Canada; ⁹Radiology, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

Cranial-spinal radiation (CSR) therapy for tumor treatment is associated with significant damage to the brains white matter. We wished to determine which regions are most affected by CSR in children treated for medulloblastomas. We compared regional values of white matter integrity in 24 healthy children and 16 patients. Regions with the lowest white matter integrity were the regions that received the highest radiation doses. This suggests that radiation directly resulted in white matter injury in a dose-dependent manner. Our findings may serve as an index of how dose gradient relates to white matter injury when considering treatment in this clinical population.