Job Title
YZ: Postdoctoral Research Fellow, NS: Clinical Research Coordinator
Academic Rank
YZ: Postdoc, NS: Staff
Department
Radiology
Authors
Yehui Zhu*, MSN, PhD, Natalie Swanson*, BA, Mehrbod Mohammadian, PhD, Jennifer Murphy, BS, Minhae Kim, BA, Ann H. Partridge, MD, MPH, Robert R. Edwards, PhD Kristin L. Schreiber, MD, PhD, Marco L. Loggia, PhD
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Introduction: As breast cancer survivorship rises, addressing long-term side effects of cancer and its treatment is crucial. Chemotherapy has been linked to neuroinflammation, leading to cognitive and neurological impairments. However, other treatments (e.g., surgery, endocrine therapy) or related conditions (pain, cancer progression) may impact neuroinflammation as well. Methods: This cross-sectional study used Siemens 3 T integrated positron emission tomography-magnetic resonance imaging (PET/MRI) with the radioligand [11C]PBR28, which binds to the neuroinflammation marker 18kDa translocator protein (TSPO), to assess the extent and distribution of neuroinflammation in two age-matched cohorts of women with and without breast cancer. Static [11C]PBR28 PET images were reconstructed from 60-90 minutes post-injection. Standardized uptake value (SUV) maps were obtained voxel-wise, normalized by injected dose/body weight. SUV maps were normalized to whole brain to obtain SUV ratio (SUVR) maps, which were spatially normalized to MNI template and spatially smoothed (FWHM=8mm). A mixed effects ordinary least squares analysis, using cluster-forming threshold of z=2.3 and cluster size threshold of p<0.05 was conducted. Mean PET signal in the regional clusters was determined, and an exploratory comparison in neuroinflammation ([11C]PBR28) signal between women with breast cancer, who did or did not receive chemotherapy (Mann-Whitney U test) was performed. Results: Twelve breast cancer patients (age=63+/-9) and 6 matched healthy controls (age=57+/-10) were included in this analysis. Compared to healthy controls, breast cancer patients showed significant increased [11C]PBR28 signal uptake in the middle cingulate cortex and underlying white matter (SUVRBC=0.95+/-0.03, SUVRHC=0.85+/-0.04). No significant difference in this region was found between women with (n=7) and without (n=5) chemotherapy (U=15.00, p=0.685). Conclusions: These preliminary findings indicate increased neuroinflammation in breast cancer patients compared to age-matched controls, independent of chemotherapy. These preliminary findings suggest that cancer or other treatments may contribute to neuroinflammation. Larger studies with focused analysis of ROI are needed to confirm these results.
