In order to avoid damage to brain areas in neurocognitive cranial radiation

The radiation oncologists at Rush University Medical Center are eager to need to find ways to prevent damage to essential circuits of the hippocampus and limbic brain radiation head of the current use or potential metastatic cancers. The objective is to these areas which are short-term memory, and emotion, motivation, accountability and protect a number of executive functions such as planning and decision making.

Cranial radiation is used for tumors in the brain, which occurs in 20 spreads to 25 percent of cancer patients have to destroy it. It is also used prophylactically to diagnose the development of overt intracranial metastases in patients with cancer of small cell lung prevented.

But there is a downside to the treatment. Because the hippocampus and limbic areas with the rest of the brain are irradiated together, treatment often causes memory loss, difficulty planning executive and poor fine motor skills. The consequences can be devastating for patients whose lives are deeply affected.

In a chart review of 107 patients with 700 lesions, found the team of radiation oncologists at Rush metastases had occurred in the hippocampus in only 0.8 per cent, and in the limbic circuit in less 3 per cent of cases.

This finding has encouraged them to determine the feasibility skull could provide radiation to the brain, but not in those specific areas - the elimination of metastasis or metastatic potential of radiation, but sparing the hippocampus and limbic areas where metastases were not expected.

In its feasibility study, the researchers have shown that the hippocampus and limbic circuits may be largely spared, with the help of modern equipment that irradiation of specific areas.

Their results are presented in a poster session at the annual meeting of the American Society of Radiation Oncology, which will be held November 1-5 in Chicago reported.

"We showed it is possible that the dose of radiation to reduce the area while treating the rest of the brain where the cancer is on the full dose," said Dr. Arnold Herskovic, principal investigator of the study.

The feasibility study was conducted using a TomoTherapy Hi-Art System, which allows treatment of tumors with image-guided radiotherapy.

Researchers expect that a clinical trial to begin soon with the new procedure to determine whether, in fact, it can either prevent or treat brain metastases, and minimize long-term neurocognitive consequences.