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Radiation targeted at a specific part of the brain may double the survival of people suffering from a type of acquired brain injury, scientists claim.

Brain cancer patients who received high doses of radiation on a part of the brain that harbours neural stem cells enjoyed double the progression-free survival time as those who received lower or no radiation, according to a study from the Radiation Oncology Department at UCLA's Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Patients with glioblastomas who were treated with high doses of radiation that targeted the specific neural stem cell site experienced 15 months of progression-free survival.

Those who were not targeted with such high amounts of radiation experienced 7.2 months of survival with no further spread of the cancer.

Senior author of the study Dr Frank Pajonk believes that the research could change the way radiation therapy is given to brain cancer patients.

"Our study found that if you irradiated a part of the brain that was not necessarily part of the tumour the patients did better," explained Dr Pajonk.

Glioblastomas are the most common and deadly type of primary brain tumours.

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Posted by Matthew Heap

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