Role of Preoperative Assessment in Predicting Tumor-Induced Plasticity in Patients with Diffuse Gliomas

When diffuse gliomas (DG) affect the brain’s potential to reorganize functional networks, patients can exhibit seizures and/or language/cognitive impairment. The tumor–brain interaction and the individual connectomic organization cannot be predicted preoperatively. We aimed to, first, investigate the relationship between preoperative assessment and intraoperative findings of eloquent tumors in 36 DG operated with awake surgery. Second, we also studied possible mechanisms of tumor-induced brain reorganization in these patients. FLAIR-MRI sequences were used for tumor volume segmentation and the Brain-Grid system (BG) was used as an overlay for infiltration analysis. Neuropsychological (NPS) and/or language assessments were performed in all patients. The distance between eloquent spots and tumor margins was measured. All variables were used for correlation and logistic regression analyses. Eloquent tumors were detected in 75% of the patients with no single variable able to predict this finding. Impaired NPS functions correlated with invasive tumors, crucial location (A4C2S2/A3C2S2-voxels, left opercular-insular/sub-insular region) and higher risk of eloquent tumors. Epilepsy was correlated with larger tumor volumes and infiltrated A4C2S2/A3C2S2 voxels. Language impairment was correlated with infiltrated A3C2S2 voxel. Peritumoral cortical eloquent spots reflected an early compensative mechanism with age as possible influencing factor. Preoperative NPS impairment is linked with high risk of eloquent tumors. A systematic integration of extensive cognitive assessment and advanced neuroimaging can improve our comprehension of the connectomic brain organization at the individual scale and lead to a better oncological/functional balance.