ArticleBMC cancer2022
Long-term cognitive, psychosocial, and neurovascular complications of unilateral head and neck irradiation in young to middle-aged adults.
Article in BMC cancer, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT04257968 (Long-term Vascular and Psychosocial Complications in Adolescent and Young Adult), which is not on this map. Cited by 10 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Long-term Vascular and Psychosocial Complications in Adolescent and Young Adult (AYA) Head and Neck Cancer Survivors.
Who cites it
10 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 10 citations in OpenAlex.
- PTSD in Patients Who Undergo Head and Neck Cancer Treatment: A Systematic Review.Current oncology (Toronto, Ont.) · 2025Pooled it
- Longitudinal changes in cognition, sleep, and psychological distress following the MORE program in head and neck cancer patients undergoing chemoradiotherapy.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Radiation-induced eCIRP Causes Alzheimer's Disease-like Neuronal Tau Phosphorylation.Molecular neurobiology · 2026Article
- Long-term outcomes among individuals living with and beyond head and neck cancer: a scoping review.Supportive care in cancer : official journal of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer · 2026Article
- The potential of microbiome modulators to improve quality of life in cancer survivors through gut microbiome-immune interactions.Frontiers in molecular neuroscience · 2026Review
- Association of Physical Activity with Dementia Risk in Cancer Survivors: A Korean Nationwide Cohort Study.Cancer research and treatment · 2026Article
- Clinical and Dosimetric Predictors of Early Onset Postradiation Hypothyroidism in Patients with Head and Neck Malignancies: A Logistic Regression Analysis.Oncology and therapy · 2025Article
- The effect of radiation dose to the brain on early self-reported cognitive function in brain and head-and-neck cancer patients.Clinical and translational radiation oncology · 2025Article
- Timeline of cognitive impairments after radiotherapy for head and neck cancer: A review.Clinical and translational radiation oncology · 2025Review
- Central nervous system tumors in adolescents and young adults: A Society for Neuro-Oncology Consensus Review on diagnosis, management, and future directions.Neuro-oncology · 2025Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
11 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundWith a growing, younger population of head and neck cancer survivors, attention to long-term side-effects of prior, often radiotherapeutic, treatment is warranted. Therefore, we studied the long-term cognitive effects in young adult patients irradiated for head and neck neoplasms (HNN).
methodsYoung to middle-aged adults with HNN (aged 18-40 years) and treated with unilateral neck irradiation ≥ 5 years before inclusion underwent cardiovascular risk and neuropsychological assessments and answered validated questionnaires regarding subjective cognitive complaints, fatigue, depression, quality of life, and cancer-specific distress. Additionally, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the brain was performed to assess white matter hyperintensities (WMH), infarctions, and atrophy.
resultsTwenty-nine patients (aged 24-61, 13 men) median 9.2 [7.3-12.9] years post-treatment were included. HNN patients performed worse in episodic memory (Z-score = -1.16 [-1.58-0.34], p < 0.001) and reported more fatigue symptoms (Z-score = 1.75 [1.21-2.00], p < 0.001) compared to normative data. Furthermore, patients had a high level of fear of tumor recurrence (13 patients [44.8%]) and a heightened speech handicap index (13 patients [44.8%]). Only a small number of neurovascular lesions were found (3 infarctions in 2 patients and 0.11 [0.00-0.40] mL WMH), unrelated to the irradiated side. Cognitive impairment was not associated with WMH, brain atrophy, fatigue, or subjective speech problems.
conclusionsHNN patients showed impairments in episodic memory and an increased level of fatigue ≥ 5 years after radiotherapy compared to normative data. Cognitive impairments could not be explained by WMH or brain atrophy on brain MRI or psychological factors.
trial registrationClinicaltrials.gov ( https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04257968 ).
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.