# Radiation necrosis (brain)

Source: https://nuclide.cc/terms/radiation-necrosis/  
Nuclide record `radiation-necrosis` (Term). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from Nuclide (nuclide.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

Death of brain tissue months to years after radiosurgery or high-dose brain radiotherapy, which can look exactly like tumour growing back on a scan.

## Summary

Radiation necrosis affects a minority of patients after stereotactic radiosurgery to brain metastases and after high-dose treatment of gliomas, more often with larger volumes and with concurrent immunotherapy or targeted drugs. It causes swelling and symptoms that mimic progression; perfusion MRI, amino-acid PET and sometimes biopsy separate the two. Treatment is steroids, bevacizumab for refractory cases, and occasionally surgery or laser ablation.

## Fields

- Kind: Term
- Last checked: 2026-09-17
- Tags: radiation-wave1

## Sources

- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiation_necrosis
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiation_necrosis

## Connected records

- indications: [Glioma & glioblastoma](https://nuclide.cc/indications/glioblastoma/)
- fronts: [Neuro-imaging](https://nuclide.cc/fronts/f-neuro-imaging/)

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JSON: https://nuclide.cc/api/v1/entities/radiation-necrosis.json