Prophylactic cranial irradiation (PCI) is known to increase life
expectancy to a significant degree in Small Cell Lung Cancer (SCLC)
patients. The overall scope of this research is to investigate changes
in structural and functional connectivity between SCLC patients and
controls before and after PCI treatment. In the current study
specifically we use diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and functional
Magnetic Resonance (fMRI) to identify potential alterations in white
matter structure and brain function respectively, in SCLC patients
before PCI compared to healthy participants. The results in DTI analysis
have showed lower fractional anisotropy (FA) and higher eigenvalues in
white matter regions in the patient group. Similarly, in fMRI analysis a
lower level of activation in the primary somatosensory cortex was
reported. The results presented herein are subject to further
investigation with larger patient and control groups
