Neurologic complications of radiation therapy

Abstract

Radiation therapy (RT) plays a central role in current cancer treatment modalities. However, despite advances in our knowledge of the mechanisms of radiation-induced neurotoxicity and the subsequent development of safer procedures, radiotherapy still accounts for disabling and sometimes life-threatening conditions. In addition, the range of indications of RT is widening to nontumoral disorders such as vascular malformations or trigeminal neuralgia, a move spearheaded by the development of radiosurgery and other modern irradiation techniques. The effects of radiation therapy on the brain and spinal cord have been sufficiently studied over the past decades that the main clinical, radiological or neuropathologic features of radiation-induced syndromes are increasingly well known. However, the pathophysiology of cerebral and spinal radiation injury is not fully understood, and the role of stem cells in both the initial damage from radiation and subsequent recovery are of great interest. © 2008 Humana Press, Totowa, NJ.