Byeong-Yeul Lee1,2, Jianli Wang1,
Kayla Davidson3, Paul J. Eslinger1,4, Qing X. Yang1,5
1Center for NMR Research,
Radiology, Hershey, PA, United States; 2Bioengineering, Penn State
College of Medicine, Hershey, PA, United States; 3Psychology,
Messiah College, Grantham, PA, United States; 4Neurology, Penn
State College of Medicine, Hershey, PA, United States; 5Neurosurgery,
Penn State College of Medicine, Hershey, PA, United States
Childhood Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL) is the most common type of childhood cancer. With increasingly effective treatments, long-term effects of cancer therapy have become an important focus of investigation. To assess the treatment effect on brain cognitive function and cerebral morphology, we applied both fMRI and voxel-based morphology (VBM) from the brain scans of children with ALL who were treated with prophylactic CNS-directed chemotherapy. fMRI and VBM analysis identified an affected brain region of the frontal lobe commonly to ALL cohorts at various time intervals since treatment. Both cognitive and educational interventions may help counter these anatomical, functional, and neurocognitive effects.
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