Research progress on radiotherapy-induced hippocampal damage and cognitive dysfunction in nasopharyngeal carcinoma / 中华放射肿瘤学杂志

ABSTRACT

Radiation-induced cognitive dysfunction is a common complication in patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma after undergoing radiotherapy, which has been proven to be associated with neurogenesis dysfunction, oligodendrocyte loss, vascular damage and abnormal cytokine expression. With the development of medicine, functional magnetic resonance image (fMRI) can detect the early lesions of cognitive dysfunction. Hippocampus-sparing technology and drug therapy (memantine, donepezil and bevacizumab) can mitigate radiation-induced cognitive dysfunction. In this article, the pathogenesis, neuroimaging, radiodosimetry and therapies of radiotherapy-induced cognitive dysfunction in nasopharynal carcinoma patients were reviewed.