Limbic Brain Hypometabolism in Patients Having Cancer : A PET Study

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

Patients suffering from malignant disease are very prone to develop severe psychosomatic trauma due to the devastating nature of the ailment and aggressive treatment approach. Our study was aimed to document the psycho-psychiatric abnormalities developed in patients suffering from cancer using brain imaging technique. Brain images of cancer and benign patients were taken by positron emission tomography (PET) after infusion of [18F]-fluoro-deoxy-glucose as a tracer. The imaging results were compared between the cancer patients and the patients suffering a benign disease. The data were analyzed using statistical parametrical mapping technique (SPM96) developed by Friston et al (London, U.K.).Our results have well illustrated the following imaging findings in the brain substrates. (1) Cancer patients have shown regional metabolic abnormality in the limbic structures of the brain with a remarkable decrement and noticeable decline was observed also in the frontal cortex. (2) This metabolic decline has shown some noted correlation with the course of treatments. It was more widely and significantly distributed in patients studied at their initial admission to a hospital prior to application of any specific treatment. Subsequently, the regions were regressed markedly after the completion of the therapeutic regimen of chemotherapy and/or radiation therapy. However, similar extensive metabolic abnormalities were again noted in those patients in whom the cancer had recurred. (3) We have speculated that these abnormalities were strongly associated with psychological factors such as depressive and anxiety disorders which also was later confirmed by asking a standard psychological questionnaire.