Cerebral haemodynamic effects in the human brain during radiation therapy for brain cancer

Radiotherapy is already well-established and an effective form of treatment for many cancers, especially for brain tumors. Currently, the clinical efficacy of a treatment, however, can only be established based on clinical or radiological responses observed after a significant period of time following the single irradiations during radiotherapy course. On the other hand, the radiotherapy dose is limited by its toxicity to surrounding healthy tissues. Particularly, radiation to brain tumors may sub-acutely or chronically affect cognition and cause fatigue even with conventional doses. However, there is currently no on-line and safe method to monitor the effects of radiation to the brain during the irradiation. In our project, we aim to develop an on-line method to monitor effects in brain tissue that correlate with the radiation dose in radiotherapy. In this case study, we use functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) and study possible temporal effects in cerebral haemodynamics during irradiations of whole-brain radiotherapy (WBRT). fNIRS is safe for the patient, it can be used noninvasively and also in demanding environments, such as in radiotherapy treatment rooms during irradiation, and thus could be in future potential technique to be utilized for monitoring tailored radiotherapy.