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Treatment
of brain metastases from melanoma
McWilliams RR, Brown PD, Buckner JC, Link MJ, Markovic SN
Division of Medical Oncology, Mayo Clinic, 200 First St SW,
Rochester, MN 55905, USA. mcwilliams.robert@mayo.edu
Brain metastases from malignant melanoma have a poor prognosis, and treatment
can be difficult because of rapid progression of the disease.
To help define the treatment of this disease, we reviewed the published
literature on brain metastases from melanoma.
If a solitary metastasis is present, surgery might be beneficial, especially if
systemic disease is absent.
Stereotactic radiosurgery is a less invasive, attractive option for solitary or
oligometastatic (up to 6) lesions.
External beam whole-brain radiation therapy can produce responses and frequently
palliates symptoms, but as the sole therapy, it is unlikely to eradicate brain
metastases.
Chemotherapy may be gaining a role with newer agents that penetrate the
blood-brain barrier.
Combined modality therapy appears to be the future direction of treatment of
multiple metastases.
PMID: 14661682 [PubMed - in process]
Source:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=14661682&dopt=Abstract
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