OBJECTIVE Whole brain radiotherapy (WBRT) provides benefit for patients with brain metastases but may result in neurological toxicity for patients with extended survival times. Stereotactic radiosurgery in combination with WBRT has become an important approach, but the value of WBRT has been questioned. As an alternative to WBRT, we managed patients with stereotactic radiosurgery alone, evaluat...

BACKGROUND The prognostic factors for patients with brain metastases from non-small cell lung cancer treated with whole brain radiotherapy (WBRT)-based combined modality therapy were investigated. MATERIALS AND METHODS Out of 135 patients treated with WBRT, 47 (34.8%) received a radiation boost, 84 (62.2%) underwent systemic chemotherapy, and 39 (28.9%) were given epidermal growth factor rece...

BACKGROUND Kim et al. report two patients with melanoma metastases to the brain that responded to treatment with RRx-001 and whole brain radiotherapy (WBRT) without neurologic or systemic toxicity in the context of a phase I/II clinical trial. RRx-001 is an reactive oxygen and reactive nitrogen species (ROS/RNS)-dependent systemically nontoxic hypoxic cell radiosensitizer with vascular normaliz...

Cancer patients undergoing cranial irradiation are at risk of developing neurocognitive impairments. Recent evidence suggests that radiation-induced injury to the hippocampi could play an important role in this cognitive decline. As a tool for studying the mechanisms of hippocampal-dependent cognitive decline, we developed a mouse model replicating the results of the recent clinical RTOG 0933 s...

OPINION STATEMENT Management of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with brain metastasis (BrM) has been revolutionized by identification of molecular subsets that have targetable oncogenes. Historically, survival for NSCLC with symptomatic BrM was weeks to months. Now, many patients are surviving years with limited data to guide treatment decisions. Tumors with activating mutations in epidermal...

Introduction The roles of early whole brain radiotherapy (WBRT) and upfront stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) alone in the treatment of melanoma patients with brain metastasis remain uncertain. We investigated the volumetric kinetics of brain metastasis development and associations with clinical outcomes for melanoma patients who received upfront SRS alone. Methods Volumetric brain metastasis vel...

BACKGROUND Lobular carcinomas in situ (LCIS) represent 1-2% of all breast cancers. Both significance and treatment remain widely debated, as well as the possible similarities with DCIS. MATERIALS AND METHODS Two hundred patients with pure LCIS were retrospectively analyzed in seven centres from 1990 to 2008. Median age was 52 years; 176 patients underwent breast-conserving surgery (BCS) and 2...

Whole brain radiation therapy (WBRT) is an effective treatment in brain metastases and, when combined with local treatments such as surgery and stereotactic radiosurgery, gives the best brain control. Nonetheless, WBRT is often omitted after local treatment due to its potential late neurocognitive effects. Publications on radiation-induced neurotoxicity have used different assessment methods, t...

Background. Renal cell carcinoma is a frequent source of brain metastasis. We present our consecutive series of patients treated with Stereotactic Radiosurgery (SRS) and analyse prognostic factors and the interplay of WBRT and surgical resection. Methods. This is a retrospective study of 66 patients with 207 lesions treated with the Cyberknife radiosurgery system in our institution. The patient...

PURPOSE To compare lesional stereotactic radiosurgery to whole brain (WBRT) radiotherapy with simultaneous in-field boost for brain metastases in terms of overall survival. METHODS A retrospective review was performed on two institutional databases of 500 patients diagnosed with brain metastatic disease who received either stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS, n = 381) or whole brain with simultane...