Gustaf Hellspong

I am resident physician in pediatric neurology at Astrid Lindgrens Children´s Hospital in Stockholm, and PhD Student in Klas Blomgren´s research group, in the department of Women and Children´s Health, Karolinska Institute. Our research focuses on injury and healing in the growing brain.

In my clinical work, I care for children with brain tumors at diagnosis, while they are awaiting neurosurgical treatment, and during follow-up in neurorehabilitation. I also manage neurological complications such as epilepsy that may arise during the course of their illness. This clinical perspective places me close to the patient journey and provides an important foundation for my research in this patient group.

My research focuses on the detection and prevention of late cognitive complications after brain radiotherapy in children treated for brain tumors. I am involved in LiBRA, a multi-site, double-blind, placebo-controlled phase 2 randomized trial investigating whether lithium can protect the brain from the long-term cognitive effects of cranial irradiation. The study is currently open in Sweden and Denmark, and we hope to expand to additional European sites. 

Read more about LiBRA here:
https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT06051240

https://www.karolinska.se/forskning-och-utbildning/kliniska-provningar/pagaende-kliniska-studier/libra/

I also conduct registry-based epidemiological research on academic outcomes in pediatric brain tumor survivors.