Lara Barazzuol receives Zon MW Off Road grant of 100.000 euro

Title: An improved understanding of radiotherapy-induced neurocognitive decline

Project leader: Lara Barazzuol

Summary: Radiotherapy is applied in the treatment of many cancers, including primary and metastatic brain tumours. However, when using radiotherapy, irradiation of normal brain tissue is unavoidable. This leads to significant and often irreversible side effects that can severely compromise quality of life, including neurocognitive decline, impairments in memory, attention, execution function and motor coordination.

Every year in the Netherlands, over 5000 cancer patients can develop radiotherapy-induced neurocognitive decline. The pathogenesis of radiation-induced neurocognitive decline is not fully understood and, at present, there is no effective treatment.

This project aims at identifying critical sub-regions in the adult brain that need to be spared in order to mitigate neurotoxicity after radiotherapy, and hence exposing the underlying biological mechanisms.