Each year, about 160,000 brain tumors or arteriovenous malformations (AVMs) are diagnosed. Often, radiation therapy is used to kill the malignancy or abnormality. Doctors try not to damage healthy tissue, but there is always some damage.

The damage resulting from radiation treatment can cause a condition known as brain radionecrosis, or brain radiation necrosis. It is the most serious complication associated with radiation therapy. Injury can be a small amount of inflammation in the treated part of the brain, or it can be the total death of a treated part of the brain. Doctors currently believe that radiation affects the blood vessels, and that in turn causes swelling because the blood supply is interrupted.



The symptoms of brain radionecrosis depend upon the size and location of the injury. Individuals may experience certain motor (muscle) function or sensory loss, which is caused by a small part of the brain not working properly. The following is a list of symptoms a patient with brain radionecrosis might have:

     • Seizures
     • Loss of ability to speak
     • Headaches
     • Difficulty maintaining balance

In a small percentage of patients, as more parts of the brain are affected, the injury continues getting worse due to poor blood flow and swelling in the brain. Unfortunately, death can occur because of the injury.

The medical community does not know how often injury is caused when using radiation therapy to treat tumors and other malignancies. However,

it is known that the amount of injury depends upon the amount of radiation given and whether radiation is given in combination with other treatments, for example, chemotherapy.

Existing treatments for brain radiation necrosis are not based on thorough research results. Current treatment methods can have side effects which may be more severe than the injury itself. There is no treatment proven to help every patient. Most doctors treat brain radionecrosis with steroids to control the swelling, however because a large dose is often needed, the side effects from the steroids can be more severe than the injury itself. Furthermore, steroids do not help everyone. One research study found that steroids helped only 35% of people who received them for this condition.

If steroids do not work, the next stage of treatment is usually to surgically remove the damaged portion of the brain. The surgical removal of damaged brain tissue is not always possible for the following reasons:

     • Location of the injury
     • Size of the injury
     • Multiple injury sites which would need to
       be removed

For patients who are not helped by steroids, and for whom surgery is not an option, there is little that can be done except to treat the symptoms as best as possible.

The Brain Radionecrosis Center is pioneering a new method for treating these patients. By using hyperbaric oxygen (oxygen given under pressure like in a diving chamber), we have found that blood begins flowing back into the injured parts of the brain, decreasing the swelling and, in many cases, completely healing the patient.