Stereotactic Radio-Surgery in the Treatment of Patients with >5 Radio-Resistant Brain MetastasesKeywords: melanoma, gamma knife, renal cancer, brain metastasis, outcomeInteractive Manuscript
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What is the background behind your study?
Whole brain radiation therapy (WBRT) is considered standard treatment in patients with multiple brain metastases. However, WBRT has limited efficacy in patients with radio-resistant brain metastases (RBM) such as renal cell carcinoma (RCC) and melanoma.
What is the purpose of your study?
The aim of this study was to evaluate outcomes in patients with >5 RBM treated with Stereotactic Radio-surgery (SRS) monotherapy or as part of a multimodality regimen.
Describe your patient group.
Data from 16 consecutive RCC and 28 melanoma patients with >5 simultaneous brain metastases (total of 44 patients, 278 lesions) treated with SRS at the Cleveland Clinic (1998-2010) were analyzed.
Describe what you did.
Patient demographics, tumor characteristics, treatment related factors and outcomes were statistically evaluated.
Describe your main findings.
24 males and 20 females (median age of 57) were treated. 57% of patients had concurrent systemic metastases to multiple organs and 30% of patients were on active systemic treatment before SRS. Patients had prior cranial surgery 10(22%), WBRT 19(43%) or SRS 8(18%) previous to their presentation with ?5 RBM. Median interval between primary diagnoses and SRS was 1.7 years (range 0-16). At the time of current SRS treatment, 82% of patients had minimal or no neurological symptoms and a median KPS of 80. 80% of patients were Recursive Partitioning Analysis (RPA) Class II. Median number of lesion was 6 (range 5-10), and median total intracranial disease burden was 4.4cc (range 0.2-36.4). Local control rate was achieved in 91% of targets as evaluated in follow up imaging. Post SRS for ?5 RBM, 19 of 44 patients required further intracranial therapy for new lesions, surgery 4%, WBRT 25% and SRS 31%. Mean follow up was 5.5 months from SRS for ?5 RBM (range 1-43). 36 patients (82%) died during follow up with neurological cause of death in 13(36%). Mean overall survival (OS) was 6.2 months (range1-43) and 13% one year OS.
Describe the main limitation of this study.
This was a retrospective study.
Describe your main conclusion.
SRS is traditionally used to treat patients with a limited number of RBM. We demonstrate that using SRS in ?5 RBM patients results in excellent local disease control (91%) and acceptable OS.
Describe the importance of your findings and how they can be used by others.
Hence, SRS should be considered in the ongoing management of RBM patients even with extensive intracranial disease.
Whole brain radiation therapy (WBRT) is considered standard treatment in patients with multiple brain metastases. However, WBRT has limited efficacy in patients with radio-resistant brain metastases (RBM) such as renal cell carcinoma (RCC) and melanoma.
The aim of this study was to evaluate outcomes in patients with >5 RBM treated with Stereotactic Radio-surgery (SRS) monotherapy or as part of a multimodality regimen.
Data from 16 consecutive RCC and 28 melanoma patients with >5 simultaneous brain metastases (total of 44 patients, 278 lesions) treated with SRS at the Cleveland Clinic (1998-2010) were analyzed.
Patient demographics, tumor characteristics, treatment related factors and outcomes were statistically evaluated.
24 males and 20 females (median age of 57) were treated. 57% of patients had concurrent systemic metastases to multiple organs and 30% of patients were on active systemic treatment before SRS. Patients had prior cranial surgery 10(22%), WBRT 19(43%) or SRS 8(18%) previous to their presentation with ?5 RBM. Median interval between primary diagnoses and SRS was 1.7 years (range 0-16). At the time of current SRS treatment, 82% of patients had minimal or no neurological symptoms and a median KPS of 80. 80% of patients were Recursive Partitioning Analysis (RPA) Class II. Median number of lesion was 6 (range 5-10), and median total intracranial disease burden was 4.4cc (range 0.2-36.4). Local control rate was achieved in 91% of targets as evaluated in follow up imaging. Post SRS for ?5 RBM, 19 of 44 patients required further intracranial therapy for new lesions, surgery 4%, WBRT 25% and SRS 31%. Mean follow up was 5.5 months from SRS for ?5 RBM (range 1-43). 36 patients (82%) died during follow up with neurological cause of death in 13(36%). Mean overall survival (OS) was 6.2 months (range1-43) and 13% one year OS.
This was a retrospective study.
SRS is traditionally used to treat patients with a limited number of RBM. We demonstrate that using SRS in ?5 RBM patients results in excellent local disease control (91%) and acceptable OS.
Hence, SRS should be considered in the ongoing management of RBM patients even with extensive intracranial disease.
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