Objective:To investigate the alterations in brain functional activity before and after chemotherapy in breast cancer patients with chemotherapy-related cognitive impairment (CRCI) using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) and their relations with cognitive impairment.Methods:A prospective observational study was performed; female breast cancer patients with CRCI admitted to Department of Oncology, Affiliated Hospital 6 of Nantong University were recruited, and age- and education level-matched female healthy controls were chosen. Before and one month after chemotherapy, statuses of cognitive function, depression and anxiety in breast cancer patients with CRCI were evaluated by Montreal cognitive assessment (MoCA), functional assessment of cancer therapy-cognitive function (FACT-cog), self-rating depression scale (SDS), and self-rating anxiety scale (SAS); subsequently, conventional MRI and resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) were conducted. The healthy controls accepted MoCA, SDS, and SAS, followed by conventional MRI and rs-fMRI. Differences in clinical data and amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (ALFF, rs-fMRI brain spontaneous neural activity index) were compared between breast cancer patients with CRCI before chemotherapy and healthy controls, and in the breast cancer patients with CRCI between before and after chemotherapy. Taking the brain regions with significant differences in ALFF before and after chemotherapy in breast cancer patients with CRCI as seed points, the difference in whole-brain functional connectivity (FC) before and after chemotherapy was compared in breast cancer patients with CRCI. Pearson or Spearman correlation tests were used to analyze the correlations of ALFF and FC in brain regions with significant differences in ALFF with cognitive function scores in breast cancer patients with CRCI.Results:(1) A total of 22 breast cancer patients with CRCI and 22 healthy controls were enrolled. Compared with the healthy controls, the breast cancer patients with CRCI before chemotherapy had significantly higher SDS and SAS scores ( P<0.05). Compared with breast cancer patients with CRCI before chemotherapy, the breast cancer patients with CRCI after chemotherapy had significantly lower MoCA, FACT-cog-perceived cognitive impairment, FACT-cog-comment from others on cognitive function, and FACT-cog-perceived cognitive ability ( P<0.05). (2) Compared with those before chemotherapy, breast cancer patients with CRCI after chemotherapy exhibited significantly increased ALFF in the right precuneus, right middle occipital gyrus, and left superior frontal gyrus, while statistically decreased FC in the right middle occipital gyrus-left middle temporal gyrus, right precentral gyrus-right middle temporal gyrus, and left superior frontal gyrus-left fusiform gyrus ( P<0.05). (3) ALFF in the right precentral gyrus in breast cancer patients with CRCI after chemotherapy was negatively correlated with difference value of FACT-cog before and after chemotherapy ( r=-0.497, P=0.018) and difference value of PCA before and after chemotherapy ( r s=-0.436, P=0.042); FC in the left superior frontal gyrus-left fusiform gyrus was positively correlated with score of FACT-cog-perceived cognitive impairment ( r=0.621, P=0.002). Conclusion:Chemotherapy induces compensatory enhancement of spontaneous neural activity in multiple brain regions in breast cancer patients with CRCI, accompanied by FC disruption at specific brain areas, which are associated with cognitive impairment.

Objective:To understand the clinical characteristics of hypophysitis due to nivolumab and provide reference for the safe use of nivolumab in clinic.Methods:Relevant databases at home and abroad (up to May 31, 2024) were searched and case reports of hypophysitis caused by nivolumab were collected. Relevant information of patients (gender, age, primary disease), single and combined use of nivolumab, occurrence of hypophysitis, causality evaluation, intervention measures and outcomes were extracted and analyzed descriptively and statistically.Results:A total of 56 case reports, 53 in English and 3 in Chinese, were enrolled in the analysis, involving 59 patients, with 40 males and 19 females. Their ages ranged from 26 to 84 years, with an average age of 61 years. The primary diseases were malignant melanoma in 20 cases, renal cell carcinoma in 19 cases, lung cancer in 11 cases, glossopharyngeal cancer in 4 cases, esophageal cancer in 2 cases, and gastric cancer, colon cancer and pleural mesothelioma in 1 case each. Among the 59 patients, 33 were treated with nivolumab monotherapy, 24 with nivolumab and ipilimumab, 1 with nivolumab and anlotinib and 1 with nivolumab and platinum. The average time of hypophysitis caused by nivolumab alone was 25.6 weeks after treatment, and that caused by the combination therapy was 9.9 weeks after treatment. The main clinical manifestations of hypophysitis caused by nivolumab were fatigue, anorexia, headache, and nausea. Among the 59 patients, 56 patients discontinued nivolumab and received glucocorticoid, 20 of whom resumed nivolumab treatment after improvement of clinical symptoms; 3 patients′ situation was not described clearly. The outcomes of the 59 patients were as follows. Four were recovered, 46 were relieved, 2 patients′ pituitary function was not recovered, 4 died, 1 developed secondary autoimmune vasculitis, 1 developed secondary autoimmune hepatitis, and it was unknown in one patient.Conclusions:The average occurrence time of hypophysitis caused by nivolumab monotherapy is longer than that caused by combination therapy. The main clinical manifestations are fatigue, anorexia, headache, etc. After timely discontinuation of medication and symptomatic treatments with glucocorticoid, most patients have a good prognosis, but it can lead to death in severe cases.

Objective:To understand the clinical characteristics of hypophysitis due to nivolumab and provide reference for the safe use of nivolumab in clinic.Methods:Relevant databases at home and abroad (up to May 31, 2024) were searched and case reports of hypophysitis caused by nivolumab were collected. Relevant information of patients (gender, age, primary disease), single and combined use of nivolumab, occurrence of hypophysitis, causality evaluation, intervention measures and outcomes were extracted and analyzed descriptively and statistically.Results:A total of 56 case reports, 53 in English and 3 in Chinese, were enrolled in the analysis, involving 59 patients, with 40 males and 19 females. Their ages ranged from 26 to 84 years, with an average age of 61 years. The primary diseases were malignant melanoma in 20 cases, renal cell carcinoma in 19 cases, lung cancer in 11 cases, glossopharyngeal cancer in 4 cases, esophageal cancer in 2 cases, and gastric cancer, colon cancer and pleural mesothelioma in 1 case each. Among the 59 patients, 33 were treated with nivolumab monotherapy, 24 with nivolumab and ipilimumab, 1 with nivolumab and anlotinib and 1 with nivolumab and platinum. The average time of hypophysitis caused by nivolumab alone was 25.6 weeks after treatment, and that caused by the combination therapy was 9.9 weeks after treatment. The main clinical manifestations of hypophysitis caused by nivolumab were fatigue, anorexia, headache, and nausea. Among the 59 patients, 56 patients discontinued nivolumab and received glucocorticoid, 20 of whom resumed nivolumab treatment after improvement of clinical symptoms; 3 patients′ situation was not described clearly. The outcomes of the 59 patients were as follows. Four were recovered, 46 were relieved, 2 patients′ pituitary function was not recovered, 4 died, 1 developed secondary autoimmune vasculitis, 1 developed secondary autoimmune hepatitis, and it was unknown in one patient.Conclusions:The average occurrence time of hypophysitis caused by nivolumab monotherapy is longer than that caused by combination therapy. The main clinical manifestations are fatigue, anorexia, headache, etc. After timely discontinuation of medication and symptomatic treatments with glucocorticoid, most patients have a good prognosis, but it can lead to death in severe cases.

Objective:To investigate the alterations in brain functional activity before and after chemotherapy in breast cancer patients with chemotherapy-related cognitive impairment (CRCI) using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) and their relations with cognitive impairment.Methods:A prospective observational study was performed; female breast cancer patients with CRCI admitted to Department of Oncology, Affiliated Hospital 6 of Nantong University were recruited, and age- and education level-matched female healthy controls were chosen. Before and one month after chemotherapy, statuses of cognitive function, depression and anxiety in breast cancer patients with CRCI were evaluated by Montreal cognitive assessment (MoCA), functional assessment of cancer therapy-cognitive function (FACT-cog), self-rating depression scale (SDS), and self-rating anxiety scale (SAS); subsequently, conventional MRI and resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) were conducted. The healthy controls accepted MoCA, SDS, and SAS, followed by conventional MRI and rs-fMRI. Differences in clinical data and amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (ALFF, rs-fMRI brain spontaneous neural activity index) were compared between breast cancer patients with CRCI before chemotherapy and healthy controls, and in the breast cancer patients with CRCI between before and after chemotherapy. Taking the brain regions with significant differences in ALFF before and after chemotherapy in breast cancer patients with CRCI as seed points, the difference in whole-brain functional connectivity (FC) before and after chemotherapy was compared in breast cancer patients with CRCI. Pearson or Spearman correlation tests were used to analyze the correlations of ALFF and FC in brain regions with significant differences in ALFF with cognitive function scores in breast cancer patients with CRCI.Results:(1) A total of 22 breast cancer patients with CRCI and 22 healthy controls were enrolled. Compared with the healthy controls, the breast cancer patients with CRCI before chemotherapy had significantly higher SDS and SAS scores ( P<0.05). Compared with breast cancer patients with CRCI before chemotherapy, the breast cancer patients with CRCI after chemotherapy had significantly lower MoCA, FACT-cog-perceived cognitive impairment, FACT-cog-comment from others on cognitive function, and FACT-cog-perceived cognitive ability ( P<0.05). (2) Compared with those before chemotherapy, breast cancer patients with CRCI after chemotherapy exhibited significantly increased ALFF in the right precuneus, right middle occipital gyrus, and left superior frontal gyrus, while statistically decreased FC in the right middle occipital gyrus-left middle temporal gyrus, right precentral gyrus-right middle temporal gyrus, and left superior frontal gyrus-left fusiform gyrus ( P<0.05). (3) ALFF in the right precentral gyrus in breast cancer patients with CRCI after chemotherapy was negatively correlated with difference value of FACT-cog before and after chemotherapy ( r=-0.497, P=0.018) and difference value of PCA before and after chemotherapy ( r s=-0.436, P=0.042); FC in the left superior frontal gyrus-left fusiform gyrus was positively correlated with score of FACT-cog-perceived cognitive impairment ( r=0.621, P=0.002). Conclusion:Chemotherapy induces compensatory enhancement of spontaneous neural activity in multiple brain regions in breast cancer patients with CRCI, accompanied by FC disruption at specific brain areas, which are associated with cognitive impairment.

Objective:To explore the alterations in functional connectivity density (FCD) resulted from mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and their correlations with cognitive scores in various cognitive domains in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD).Methods:Forty-three PD patients admitted to Department of Neurology, Sixth Affiliated Hospital of Nantong University from January 2022 to April 2024 were selected and divided into PD-MCI group (MoCA scores<26) and PD with normal cognition (PD-NC) group (MoCA scores≥26) according to Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA). Another 23 middle-aged and elderly healthy volunteers (HC group) matched with PD patients in age, gender and education level were recruited at the same period. Resting-state functional MRI (rs-fMRI) data were collected and whole brain FCD was calculated. Differences of clinical data, whole brain FCD, and FCD in brain regions with significantly different FCD among the 3 groups were compared. Efficiency of FCD in brain regions with significantly different FCD between PD-MCI group and PD-NC group in differentially diagnosing PD-MCI and PD-NC was analyzed by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve. Pearson correlation was used to the analyze the correlations of FCD in brain regions with significantly different FCD with MoCA score and cognitive scores in various cognitive domains.Results:Among the 43 patients, 23 were into the PD-MCI group and 20 into the PD-NC group. PD-MCI group had significantly lower scores in the visuospatial and executive function, abstraction, and delayed memory cognitive domains than PD-NC group ( P<0.05). Brain regions with significantly different FCD among the 3 groups were the right parahippocampal gyrus, left gyrus rectus, right rolandic operculum, left middle occipital gyrus, right precentral gyrus, left middle frontal gyrus, and left medial superior frontal gyrus. Compared with the HC group, the PD-MCI group and PD-NC group had significantly increased FCD at the right parahippocampal gyrus, left gyrus rectus and right rolandic operculum, statistically decreased FCD at the right precentral gyrus, left middle frontal gyrus, and left medial superior frontal gyrus ( P<0.05). Compared with the HC group, the PD-MCI group had significantly increased FCD at the left middle occipital gyrus ( P<0.05). Compared with the PD-NC group, the PD-MCI group had significantly decreased FCD at the right parahippocampal gyrus, and statistically increased FCD at the left middle occipital gyrus and left middle frontal gyrus ( P<0.05). Area under ROC curve (AUC) of FCD in brain regions with significantly different FCD in discriminating PD-MCI and PD-NC was 0.878, with sensitivity of 90.0% and specificity of 91.3%. FCD at right parahippocampal gyrus, left middle occipital gyrus and left middle frontal gyrus was negatively correlated with MoCA score ( P<0.05); FCD at right parahippocampal gyrus was positively correlated with cognitive scores in the visuospatial and executive function, and delayed memory domains ( P<0.05); FCD at left middle occipital gyrus was negatively correlated with cognitive scores in the executive function and visual-spatial skills, and abstraction domains ( P<0.05); FCD at the left medial frontal gyrus was negatively correlated with cognitive scores in the visuospatial and executive function, abstraction and delayed memory domains ( P<0.05). Conclusions:Abnormal FCD can be noted in some brain regions of PD patients, enjoying differences between PD-MCI patients and PD-NC patients. Combined FCD in brain regions with significantly different FCD has high value in differentially diagnosing PD-MCI and PD-NC, and FCD in brain regions with significantly different FCD is correlated with cognitive function changes in PD patients.