Cognitive impairment and associations with structural brain networks, endocrine status, and risk genotypes in newly orchiectomized testicular cancer patients

摘要

Abstract A higher incidence of cognitive impairment (CI) has previously been reported among orchiectomized testicular cancer patients (TCPs), but little is known about the underlying pathophysiology. The present study assessed CI in newly orchiectomized TCPs and explored the structural brain networks, endocrine status, and selected genotypes. Forty TCPs and 22 healthy controls (HCs) underwent neuropsychological testing and magnetic resonance imaging, and provided a blood sample. CI was defined as a z-score?≤?-2 on one neuropsychological test or?≤?-1.5 on two neuropsychological tests, and structural brain networks were investigated using graph theory. Associations of cognitive performance with brain networks, endocrine status (including testosterone levels and androgen receptor CAG repeat length), and genotypes (APOE, BDNF, COMT) were explored. Compared with HCs, TCPs performed poorer on 6 out of 15 neuropsychological tests, of which three tests remained statistically significant when adjusted for relevant between-group differences (p?