More Than Just X-Rays - Imaging of Chemotherapy-induced Morphological and Functional Cardiovascular and Lung Changes After Childhood ALL and Other Cancers - a Monocentric Late Effects Study (MaximALL)

Survivors of childhood cancer have a high risk of developing late effects regarding different organ systems even years after treatment. Our preliminary data show that a high number of our study participants who have received oncological treatment for ALL or Hodgkin's disease, develop severe ventilation and/or perfusion disorders/defects that can be detected on MRI of the lungs. These changes are mainly observed in participants with a greater interval to the oncological treatment and we could find a significant correlation between ventilation- and perfusion defects and the timespan after diagnosis. In spiroergometry, our patient group showed reduced aerobic capacity (ViO2 max), regardless of the time of follow-up. Echocardiography including strain analysis resulted in suspicious findings. The aim of our follow-up project is to validate these results in a larger patient population and to extend the investigations of long-term follow up after oncological disease/treatment in childhood and adolescence. We are planning to conduct a multicenter study with participants (who received oncological treatment in childhood or adolescence and are now undergoing long-term-follow-up care (> 5 years after treatment,). Therefore, we will examine morphological und functional lung changes by low field strength MRI and spiroergometry. We plan to investigate cardiac changes by echocardiography with strain analysis and ECG. Additionally, we would like to use multispectral optoacoustic tomography (MSOT) screening for muscle atrophy due to peripheral artery disease (PAD) as another modern imaging procedure for early detection of vascular changes.

Control Group:

Inclusion criteria

• no cancer diagnosis
• no lung diseases
• no vascular diseases
• No subjective reduction in physical performance
• age >/= 18 years

Exclusion criteria

• Pregnancy, Lactation
• Known pleural or pericardial effusion
• Critical condition (requiring respiratory support, ventilation, oxygen, shock, symptomatic heart failure)
• Marked thoracic deformities/malformations
• Previous lung surgery
• Injuries that do not allow physical stress diagnostics
• Rejection of MRI imaging
• General contraindications for MRI examinations (e.g. electrical implants such as cardiac pacemakers or perfusion pumps, copper IUD etc.)

Survivors of ALL:

Inclusion criteria

• Completed therapy for ALL
• age >/= 3 years

Exclusion criteria

• Pregnancy, Lactation
• Known pleural or pericardial effusion
• Critical condition (requiring respiratory support, ventilation, oxygen, shock, symptomatic heart failure)
• Marked thoracic deformities/malformations
• Previous lung surgery
• Injuries that do not allow physical stress diagnostics
• Rejection of MRI imaging
• General contraindications for MRI examinations (e.g. electrical implants such as cardiac pacemakers or perfusion pumps, copper IUD etc.)

Survivors of Lymphoma:

Inclusion criteria

• Completed therapy for lymphoma
• age >/= 3 years

Exclusion criteria

• Pregnancy, Lactation
• Known pleural or pericardial effusion
• Critical condition (requiring respiratory support, ventilation, oxygen, shock, symptomatic heart failure)
• Marked thoracic deformities/malformations
• Previous lung surgery
• Injuries that do not allow physical stress diagnostics
• Rejection of MRI imaging
• General contraindications for MRI examinations (e.g. electrical implants such as cardiac pacemakers or perfusion pumps, copper IUD etc.)