Radiotherapy

…He traces a career that began building radiotherapy components with his father, discusses product development at Aktina, and explains how persistence and a conversation with a colleague led him to a doctorate at McGill University.

Background: Radiotherapy is a common treatment for brain tumors, yet it often leads to cognitive decline. Past understanding suggested this damage was irreversible due to DNA damage and cell death. However, recent studies propose that it may be reversible, as it affects active cells. Scientists focus on hippocampal activity, crucial for learning and memory, to explore this. Radiation is thought to decrease neurogenesis and increase neuroinflammation in the hippocampus. Anti-inflammatory drugs are suggested as a potential solution to mitigate cognitive decline from radiation.Aims: Analyzing the

Radiotherapy (RT) is the mainstay of brain cancer treatment due the generation of reactive oxygen species that cause double- and single-stranded DNA breaks. Although tumour cells are more radiosensitive, healthy cells are also subject to radiation damage, and as such therapeutic radiation can induce progressive cognitive decline. We investigated whether radiation-induced cognitive impairments could be prevented with the antioxidant tempol. Male C57BL/6 mice aged 27 weeks were administered either tempol (100mg/kg/day) or 0.9% saline for seven consecutive days via the I.P. route. One day after t

X-ray-based radiotherapy is a standard treatment for brain tumors. However, it is associated with systemic effects like lymphopenia that correlates with poor prognosis. Protontherapy has emerged as a new strategy, given that its ballistic properties (lower entry dose and lack of an exit dose) are exploited to spare healthy brain tissue and reduce side effects caused by systemic inflammation. We investigated how protons could spare circulating leukocytes relative to x-rays and if observed effects could be mediated by ballistic, biologic effects or both. Tumor-free C57BL/6 mice model was used fo