An Activation Likelihood Estimation Meta-Analysis of Voxel-Based Morphometry Studies of Chemotherapy-Related Brain Volume Changes in Breast Cancer.

Background/objectives: Breast cancer chemotherapy patients and survivors face cognitive side effects that are not fully understood. Neuroimaging can provide a unique way to study these effects; however, it can be difficult to recruit large numbers of subjects. Our meta-analysis aims to synthesize volumetric neuroimaging data to highlight consistent findings in regional brain volume changes to further advance our understanding of the chemotherapy-related cognitive impairments faced by breast cancer patients and survivors.

Methods: An Activation Likelihood Estimation analysis was conducted across the data from eight voxel-based morphometry experiments examining changes in the brains of breast cancer patients and survivors exposed to chemotherapy over time and three voxel-based morphometry experiments comparing chemotherapy-exposed subjects to controls with and without breast cancer.

Results: There were consistent volume reductions across the whole brain in both experiment groups. The subjects' over-time analysis showed peak consistency among the studies in the right inferior frontal gyrus and the left insula.

Conclusions: Chemotherapy for non-central nervous system cancers such as breast cancer can cause physical changes throughout the brain that can be quantitatively measured by neuroimaging methodologies and may underlie persistent cognitive deficits in some individuals.