Cerebral Cortex Structure Changes and Their Correlation with Cognitive Function in Lung Cancer Patients

Introduction: To assess differences in cerebral cortex structure changes between lung cancer and healthy controls, and to analyze their correlation with cognitive function.Methods33 patients diagonosed with primary lung cancer have been enrolled in a prospective study. Before starting treatment and 2–4 months after recieving treatment, the patients underwent assessment of cognitive function, and activities of daily living, as well as a T1-weighted magnetic resonance imaging. The patients were compaired with 33 sex, age and education-matched healthy controls.ResultsNeuropsychological assessment, MoCA and Tail Making Test (TMT), shows that 78.8% of newly diagnosed lung cancer patients had mild to moderate cognitive impairment. Patients' visual space and executive ability deteriorated after treatment (t = 2.66, d = 0.66, P = 0.02). At baseline, some cerebral cortex of frontal, temporal and parietal lobes were atrophied, especially anterior central gyrus, rostral middle frontal cortex, superior temporal gyrus, middle temporal gyrus and temporal pole. After treatment, the rostral middle frontal cortex of the right brain was further atrophied (P<0.005). There was a positively correlation between atrophied cortical thickness in newly diagnosed lung cancer patients and the score of part A of TMT. Temporal pole volume was positively correlated with naming (r = 0.39, P = 0.03) and language (r = 0.43, P = 0.02), while middle temporal gyrus was positively correlated with attention (r = 0.39, P = 0.03) and orientation (r = 0.39, P = 0.04).ConclusionThis study suggests that cancer itself and treatment lead to cognitive impairment, as well as cortical thickness and volume reduction, and cerebral cortex structure changes are correlated with cognitive function. Confirming the existence of cancer-related cognitive impairment and cancer-related brain injury.