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UCSD Image-Guided Cognitive-Sparing Radiosurgery for Intracranial Lesions

UCSD Image-Guided Cognitive-Sparing Radiosurgery for Intracranial Lesions: Avoidance of Eloquent White Matter and Hippocampal Regions

Status
Recruiting
Phases
Phase 2
Study type
Interventional
Source
ClinicalTrials.gov
Registry ID
NCT04343157
Acronym
IG-SRS
Enrollment
90
Registered
2020-04-13
Start date
2019-05-01
Completion date
2028-12-31
Last updated
2026-09-08

For informational purposes only — not medical advice. Sourced from public registries and may not reflect the latest updates. Terms

Conditions

Arteriovenous Malformations, Cerebral, Brain Metastases, Adult, Cancer, Meningioma of Brain, Neurocognitive Function

Brief summary

In this proposal, the investigators introduce advanced diffusion and volumetric imaging techniques along with innovative, automated image parcellation methods to identify critical brain regions, incorporate into cognitive-sparing SRS for intracranial lesions, and analyze biomarkers of radiation response. This work will advance the investigators' understanding of neurocognitive changes after brain SRS and help create interventions that preserve cognitive-function in patients with intracranial lesions.

Detailed description

Background: Brain metastases affect one third of adult cancer patients. Stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) is standard of care for patients with limited brain metastases. Yet most patients will experience post-treatment cognitive decline given the potential for high doses to eloquent white matter and the hippocampus. SRS is also standard of care for benign intracranial lesions like arteriovenous malformations (AVMs) and meningioma. Objective/Hypothesis: The investigator's team has developed innovative, robust imaging methods and automated segmentation techniques to identify critical white-matter tracts and the hippocampus using advanced diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and volumetric imaging. These novel imaging techniques also allow us to directly and non-invasively measure microstructural changes after RT to critical brain structures in vivo. The investigators will use these advanced imaging technologies in a prospective trial of cognitive-sparing brain SRS. Specific Aims: 1: To evaluate whether relative sparing of eloquent white matter tracts (critical for memory, language, attention, and executive functioning) and hippocampi from high doses during brain SRS results in improved 3-month post-SRS cognitive performance relative to historical controls in patients with 1 to 3 brain metastases. 2: To measure longitudinal trends in white matter damage (using DTI) and hippocampal atrophy (using volumetric change) among patients receiving cognitive-sparing brain SRS and correlate these imaging biomarkers with domain-specific cognitive outcomes. Study Design: The investigators will prospectively enroll an anticipated 80-90 adult patients with intracranial lesions (benign tumors like meningiomas and AVMs) and limited brain metastases who are eligible for brain SRS and MRI. Patients will undergo MRI with DTI and 3D volumetric imaging at baseline (pre-SRS) and 1 month, 3 months, and 6 months afterwards. White matter and hippocampal segmentation will be performed and critical regions integrated into cognitive-sparing brain SRS planning with automated knowledge-based optimization. Cognitive-sparing dose constraints are derived from previous data. A well-established, validated battery of neurocognitive tests will be performed at baseline and 3 months post-SRS. Cognitive deterioration rate will be compared between the current trial and historical controls and linear regression used to analyze patient, tumor, and treatment related predictors of cognitive decline. Statistical modeling will be used to analyze changes in imaging biomarkers as a function of time and radiation dose, and these changes will be tested for association with domain-specific cognitive tests. Spatial sensitivity to RT dose across white matter tracts will be analyzed.

Interventions

RADIATIONCognitive Sparing Brain Stereotactic Radiosurgery (SRS)

In this proposal, the investigators introduce advanced diffusion and volumetric imaging techniques along with innovative, automated image parcellation methods to identify critical brain regions, incorporate into cognitive-sparing SRS, and analyze biomarkers of radiation response. This work will advance the investigators' understanding of neurocognitive changes after brain SRS and help create interventions that preserve cognitive-function during SRS for intracranial lesions

Sponsors

Jona Hattangadi-Gluth
Lead SponsorOTHER
National Institutes of Health (NIH)
CollaboratorNIH
National Cancer Institute (NCI)
CollaboratorNIH

Study design

Allocation
NA
Intervention model
SINGLE_GROUP
Primary purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
NONE

Intervention model description

Study patients will undergo MR imaging with DTI and 3D volumetric imaging at baseline (pre-SRS), and 1 month, 3 months, and 6 months afterwards. This regimen of post-SRS MR imaging is clinical standard of care. Segmentation of critical white matter and hippocampal volumes will be performed pre-SRS for use in brain SRS planning. Formal neurocognitive assessments will be performed at baseline and 3 months post-SRS.

Eligibility

Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
18 Years to No maximum
Healthy volunteers
No

Inclusion criteria

1. Patients 18 years or older 2. Eligible for intracranial SRS: Limited brain metastases targets geometrically feasible for SRS (intact or resected tumor bed), meningioma, or cerebral AVM 3. Eastern cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) performance status 0-2 (score of 0, no symptoms; 1, mild symptoms; 2, symptomatic, \<50% in bed during the day) 4. Ability to answer questions and follow commands via neurocognitive testing 5. Estimated life expectancy greater than 6 months 6. Pathologic confirmation of extracerebral tumor site (eg, lung, breast, prostate) from either the primary site or a metastatic lesion if brain metastasis 7. Willingness/Ability to undergo brain MRI scans 8. Able to give informed consent

Exclusion criteria

1. Pregnant or nursing women 2. Women of childbearing potential unwilling to use adequate contraception 3. Inability to complete a magnetic resonance imaging scan with contrast 4. Tumor directly invading the critical area to be spared (for example a patient with tumor invading a critical white matter tract; ineligible for cognitive-sparing) 5. Planned chemotherapy during SRS (on the day of SRS) 6. Previous whole brain radiation therapy 7. Leptomeningeal metastases (ineligible for SRS) 8. Metastases from primary germ cell tumor, small cell carcinoma, or primary CNS lymphoma (ineligible for SRS)

Design outcomes

Primary

MeasureTime frameDescription
Change in Verbal Memory from baseline to 3 months after SRSChange from Baseline (pre-treatment) to 3 months post treatmentTo evaluate the change from baseline to 3-month post-SRS verbal memory performance when performing relative sparing of eloquent white matter tracts and hippocampi from high doses during brain SRS in patients with 1 to 3 brain metastases. Verbal memory outcomes and measurements include: Hopkins Verbal Learning Test-Revised (HVLT-R)-Immediate, Delayed Recall. Scale of scores is 0-36 for Immediate, 0-12 for Delayed. For both tests, higher scores indicate better performance.
Change in Executive Functioning from baseline to 3 months after SRSChange from Baseline (pre-treatment) to 3 months post treatmentTo evaluate the change from baseline to 3-month post-SRS executive functioning performance when performing relative sparing of eloquent white matter tracts and hippocampi from high doses during brain SRS in patients with 1 to 3 brain metastases. Executive functioning outcomes and measurements include: Controlled Oral Word Association Test (COWA): letter fluency, Trail Making Test Part B (TMT-B). Scale of scores is: Controlled Oral Word Association Test (COWA): letter fluency: 0- no upper limit. Higher score indicates better performance Trail Making Test Part B (TMT-B): 0-240. Higher score indicates poorer performance
Change in Attention/Processing Speed from baseline to 3 months after SRSChange from Baseline (pre-treatment) to 3 months post treatmentTo evaluate the change from baseline to 3-month post-SRS Attention/Processing Speed performance when performing relative sparing of eloquent white matter tracts and hippocampi from high doses during brain SRS in patients with 1 to 3 brain metastases. Attention/Processing Speed outcomes and measurements include: Trail Making Test Part A (TMT-A) Scale of scores is: Trail Making Test Part A (TMT-A): 0-240. Higher score indicates poorer performance
Change in Language functioning from baseline to 3 months after SRSChange from Baseline (pre-treatment) to 3 months post treatmentTo evaluate the change from baseline to 3-month post-SRS Language performance when performing relative sparing of eloquent white matter tracts and hippocampi from high doses during brain SRS in patients with 1 to 3 brain metastases. Language outcomes and measurements include: Boston Naming Test (BNT), Controlled Oral Word Association Test (COWA): category fluency Scale of scores is: Boston Naming Test (BNT): 0-60 Controlled Oral Word Association Test (COWA): category fluency: 0-no upper limit For both tests, higher score indicates better performance.

Secondary

MeasureTime frameDescription
Longitudinal changes in imaging biomarker fractional anisotropy (FA) from DTI imagingbaseline (pre-treatment), 3 months and 6 months post-treatmentTo measure longitudinal changes in FA (unitless index between 0 and 1) from DTI imaging
Longitudinal changes in imaging biomarker mean diffusivity (MD) from DTI imagingbaseline (pre-treatment), 3 months and 6 months post-treatmentTo measure longitudinal changes in MD (mm squared/second) from DTI imaging
Longitudinal changes in imaging biomarker volume from volumetric MR imagingbaseline (pre-treatment), 3 months and 6 months post-treatmentTo measure longitudinal changes in volume (cc) from volumetric MR imaging

Countries

United States

Contacts

CONTACTSheila Medina
s4medina@health.ucsd.edu858-822-6575
PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATORJona Hattangadi-Gluth, MD

University of California, San Diego

Outcome results

None listed

Source: ClinicalTrials.gov · Data processed: Sep 9, 2026