Investigation of treatment related neurotoxicity following childhood cancer by proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy

Children who survive treatment for cancer may suffer late effects, and neurotoxicity is a particular problem following central nervous system (CNS) directed therapy. Conventionally, this is assessed by neuropsychological assessments and neuroimaging. Cognitive deficits cannot be detected until several years after therapy, and although neuroimaging abnormalities are frequent they do not appear to be predictive of late problems. Thus, this study evaluated the role of localised proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1H-MRS), a non-invasive method of quantifying metabolites in-vivo, which has the potential to be a sensitive, and quantifiable, means of detecting neurotoxicity and predicting clinical outcome