Gray Matter Structural Network Disruptions in Survivors of Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia with Chemotherapy Treatment

Neuroimaging studies of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) during chemotherapy treatment have shown alterations in structure, function, and connectivity in several brain regions, suggesting neurobiological impairment that might influence the large-scale brain network. This study aimed to detect the alterations in the topological organization of structural covariance networks of ALL patients.

This study included 28 ALL patients undergoing chemotherapy and 20 matched healthy controls. We calculated the gray matter volume of 90 brain regions based on an automated anatomical labeling template and applied graph theoretical analysis to compare the topological parameters of the gray matter structural networks between the two groups.

The results demonstrated that both the ALL and healthy control groups exhibited a small-world topology across the range of densities. Compared to healthy controls, ALL patients had less highly interactive nodes and a reduced degree/betweenness in temporal regions, which may contribute to impaired memory and executive functions in these patients.

These results reveal that ALL patients undergoing chemotherapy treatment may have decreased regional connectivity and reduced efficiency of their structural covariance network. This is the first report of anomalous large-scale gray matter structural networks in ALL patients undergoing chemotherapy treatment and provides new insights regarding the neurobiological mechanisms underlying the chemo-brain network.