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Radiation-Induced Changes in Structural Network in Patients with Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma

Received: 27 December 2017    Accepted:     Published: 29 December 2017
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Abstract

Radiation therapy (RT) is the standard radical treatment for nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC), and has produced excellent effects in terms of survival rate [1, 2]. However, one of the serious complications gave rise by the RT is brain injury. Previous studies have found that RT could cause brain structural abnormalities on gray matter and white matter. Nevertheless, the RT effects on the network level should be further investigated. Herein, we explored changes on the structural network for patients with NPC induced by RT. The structural magnetic resonance data (sMRI) were used to investigate the structural network in 20 NPC patients after and before radiotherapy. After constructing the structural network, we examined the radiation-induced changes in topology properties of small world network using graph theoretical analysis. Our results found that both the before and after radiotherapy groups showed small world properties. Compared with the before radiotherapy (pre-RT) group, the after radiotherapy (post-RT) group had lower global and local efficiency, longer shortest path length, and less clustering coefficient. In addition, the hub regions in the post-RT group were significantly different from the pre-RT group. Our findings exhibited the architecture of network topology and information transfer efficiency became poor in post-RT group. We speculated radiation therapy might induce the differences. The results can provide a new perspective to explore and diagnose radiation-induced brain injury and evaluate the effect of radiotherapy.

Published in American Journal of Clinical and Experimental Medicine (Volume 5, Issue 6)
DOI 10.11648/j.ajcem.20170506.17
Page(s) 224-233
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma (NPC), Radiotherapy, Voxel-Based Morphometry (VBM), Gray Matter, Small World Properties

References
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Cite This Article
  • APA Style

    Yin Tian, Yi Zhao. (2017). Radiation-Induced Changes in Structural Network in Patients with Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma. American Journal of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, 5(6), 224-233. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajcem.20170506.17

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    ACS Style

    Yin Tian; Yi Zhao. Radiation-Induced Changes in Structural Network in Patients with Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma. Am. J. Clin. Exp. Med. 2017, 5(6), 224-233. doi: 10.11648/j.ajcem.20170506.17

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    AMA Style

    Yin Tian, Yi Zhao. Radiation-Induced Changes in Structural Network in Patients with Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma. Am J Clin Exp Med. 2017;5(6):224-233. doi: 10.11648/j.ajcem.20170506.17

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  • @article{10.11648/j.ajcem.20170506.17,
      author = {Yin Tian and Yi Zhao},
      title = {Radiation-Induced Changes in Structural Network in Patients with Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma},
      journal = {American Journal of Clinical and Experimental Medicine},
      volume = {5},
      number = {6},
      pages = {224-233},
      doi = {10.11648/j.ajcem.20170506.17},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajcem.20170506.17},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ajcem.20170506.17},
      abstract = {Radiation therapy (RT) is the standard radical treatment for nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC), and has produced excellent effects in terms of survival rate [1, 2]. However, one of the serious complications gave rise by the RT is brain injury. Previous studies have found that RT could cause brain structural abnormalities on gray matter and white matter. Nevertheless, the RT effects on the network level should be further investigated. Herein, we explored changes on the structural network for patients with NPC induced by RT. The structural magnetic resonance data (sMRI) were used to investigate the structural network in 20 NPC patients after and before radiotherapy. After constructing the structural network, we examined the radiation-induced changes in topology properties of small world network using graph theoretical analysis. Our results found that both the before and after radiotherapy groups showed small world properties. Compared with the before radiotherapy (pre-RT) group, the after radiotherapy (post-RT) group had lower global and local efficiency, longer shortest path length, and less clustering coefficient. In addition, the hub regions in the post-RT group were significantly different from the pre-RT group. Our findings exhibited the architecture of network topology and information transfer efficiency became poor in post-RT group. We speculated radiation therapy might induce the differences. The results can provide a new perspective to explore and diagnose radiation-induced brain injury and evaluate the effect of radiotherapy.},
     year = {2017}
    }
    

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  • TY  - JOUR
    T1  - Radiation-Induced Changes in Structural Network in Patients with Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma
    AU  - Yin Tian
    AU  - Yi Zhao
    Y1  - 2017/12/29
    PY  - 2017
    N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajcem.20170506.17
    DO  - 10.11648/j.ajcem.20170506.17
    T2  - American Journal of Clinical and Experimental Medicine
    JF  - American Journal of Clinical and Experimental Medicine
    JO  - American Journal of Clinical and Experimental Medicine
    SP  - 224
    EP  - 233
    PB  - Science Publishing Group
    SN  - 2330-8133
    UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajcem.20170506.17
    AB  - Radiation therapy (RT) is the standard radical treatment for nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC), and has produced excellent effects in terms of survival rate [1, 2]. However, one of the serious complications gave rise by the RT is brain injury. Previous studies have found that RT could cause brain structural abnormalities on gray matter and white matter. Nevertheless, the RT effects on the network level should be further investigated. Herein, we explored changes on the structural network for patients with NPC induced by RT. The structural magnetic resonance data (sMRI) were used to investigate the structural network in 20 NPC patients after and before radiotherapy. After constructing the structural network, we examined the radiation-induced changes in topology properties of small world network using graph theoretical analysis. Our results found that both the before and after radiotherapy groups showed small world properties. Compared with the before radiotherapy (pre-RT) group, the after radiotherapy (post-RT) group had lower global and local efficiency, longer shortest path length, and less clustering coefficient. In addition, the hub regions in the post-RT group were significantly different from the pre-RT group. Our findings exhibited the architecture of network topology and information transfer efficiency became poor in post-RT group. We speculated radiation therapy might induce the differences. The results can provide a new perspective to explore and diagnose radiation-induced brain injury and evaluate the effect of radiotherapy.
    VL  - 5
    IS  - 6
    ER  - 

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Author Information
  • Department of Biological Information, Chongqing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Chongqing, China

  • Department of Biological Information, Chongqing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Chongqing, China

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