(Medical Xpress)—Cranial irradiation saves the lives of brain cancer patients. It slows cancer progression and increases survival rates. Unfortunately, patients who undergo cranial irradiation often develop problems with cognitive functioning. To determine how radiation affects cognition, Vipan Parihar and Charles Limoli of the University of California, Irvine studied cranial irradiation in mice. They found that exposure to radiation causes degenerative changes to brain architecture similar to those observed in people with neurodegenerative conditions such as Alzheimer's disease and Huntington's disease. Their research appears in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
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