

Environmental pollutants have emerged as a major global health concern, with growing evidence linking exposure to both traditional contaminants such as heavy metals (lead, mercury, cadmium, arsenic) and novel pollutants-including micro- and nanoplastics, per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), antibiotics, and endocrine-disrupting chemicals-to adverse neurological outcomes. These pollutants can cross or disrupt the blood-brain barrier, accumulate in neural tissue, and trigger oxidative stress, inflammation, epigenetic modifications, and metabolic reprogramming.
Brain tumours and cerebrovascular diseases represent two major categories of neurosurgical disorders with high morbidity and mortality. However, their interaction with environmental pollutant exposure remains poorly understood. Recent studies suggest that pollutant-induced molecular alterations, such as aberrant DNA methylation, lipid metabolism disruption, and neurovascular endothelial dysfunction, may contribute to tumour initiation, malignant progression, aneurysm formation, and stroke occurrence.
Given the increasing human exposure to these pollutants and the lack of large-scale clinical data, it is urgent to establish a systematic investigation in neurosurgical patients. This study aims to profile pollutant exposure (heavy metals, PFAS, microplastics, and other novel contaminants) using multi-biospecimen analysis (blood, urine, hair, tumour and peri-tumour tissues), and to explore their mechanistic links to the pathogenesis of brain tumours and cerebrovascular diseases. The findings are expected to provide new evidence for understanding environment-brain interactions and to identify potential biomarkers for disease risk stratification and prevention.





Enter contact info
We need your contact info for the study team to get in touch with you
Create an alert
Would you like us to notify you if new site gets added near your preferred location?
Since this trial requires contact information verification, you will receive an email with the information you provided asking for your validation. Only after this verification step your referral will be sent to the study site selected.
To verify your phone, please use one of the verification methods below:
If you would like to be informed of other studies that may be of interest to you, you may sign up for Patient Notification Service.
We have recorded your responses successfully. You will be notified when a new site matching your preferred location is added to the system.
We have recorded your responses successfully. You will not be notified when a new site matching your preferred location is added to the system.
If you would like to be informed of other studies that may be of interest to you, you may sign up for Patient Notification Service.
Your information has been sent successfully. A study member will get in touch with you soon.
If you would like to be informed of other studies that may be of interest to you, you may sign up for Patient Notification Service.
The prescreener preview is complete. You may now close the preview.
