Investigation of decline of neurocognitive function after cranial radiation therapy for brain tumors and exploring early diagnostic method

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Adverse radiation effect after brain radiation may cause severe deterioration of neurocognitive function (NCF). The lack of standardized objective scale to determine the severity of the decline of NCF has been an obstacle to investigate the way to prevent and/or treat this condition. We assorted Japanese version of neurocognitive battery which is compatible to those used in Western countries. In a prospective study, this NCB demonstrated deterioration of NCF 4 months after whole-brain radiation therapy (WBRT), recovery at 8 months, and decline at 12 months. In the examination of diffusion tensor imaging, mean diffusivity (MD), which could be a potential index to determine the damage to white matter, continued to increase overtime. At 8 months after radiation, the magnitude of %difference of MD compared with baseline was greatest at corpus callosum followed by cingulate. The correlation of findings in DTI and NCB is a matter of further investigation.