BrainView: monitoring of cognition and brain health in the of care of patients with brain tumors

Brain tumor patients (both primary and secondary) often suffer from cognitive dysfunction. Current radiotherapy techniques, e.g., LINAC and GammaKnife, aim to achieve tumor control by highly focused radiation dose delivery and relative sparing of normal brain tissue. Better intracranial tumor control and more localized radiation therapy should favor quality of life including cognition . At the same time, the high-dose megavoltage-range radiation to the brain (in combination with other potentially neurotoxic treatments) might in itself give rise cognitive dysfunction.

The BrainView initiative started in 2016. It aims is to  improve care for brain tumor patients by
1) directly by monitoring cognitive functioning
2) via research by accumulating a high quality multimodal database.

All patients undergoing brain radiation receive a neuropsychological assessment (including cognitive tests and PROs) and advanced MRI as part of clinical work-up. This initiative is a collaboration between the Cognition group and several clinical departments (radiotherapy, radiology, neuro-oncology).