BBRC researchers collaborate in a study from the Hospital del Mar that changes the approach to preventive treatment of brain metastasis in lung cancer

Thirteen health centers in the state, coordinated by the Radiotherapy Oncology Service of the Hospital del Mar, have carried out a phase III multicenter study that validates protecting patients with small cell lung cancer from radiation of the hippocampus, a small area located in the central region of the brain linked, among other things, to memory and learning.

The study’s researchers analyzed the effects of hippocampal protection through specific memory tests at both the beginning and end of follow-up. At the same time, the evolution of the hippocampal dimension has been followed with magnetic resonance imaging, analyzed at the BBRC. The team of the Neuroimaging Research Group, led by Dr. Juan Domingo Gispert, have measured the volume of the hippocampi of the participants in the study, to show that, with this technique, they do not atrophy and that this fact is correlated with maintaining memory in these patients. On the other hand, Dr. Gonzalo Sánchez, a researcher in the Clinical Research Group, Biomarkers and Risk Factors, has helped in the selection of the optimal cognitive tests for this study and in the interpretation of the results.

Learn more about the study here.