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Management strategies for patients with brain
metastases: has radiosurgery made a difference?
Jawahar A, Ampil F, Wielbaecher C, Hartman GH, Zhang JH, Nanda A
Department of Neurosurgery, Louisiana State University Health
Sciences Center in Shreveport, Shreveport, LA 71130-3932, USA.
Background. Brain metastases develop in up to 50% of all patients
with cancer.
The purpose of this retrospective study was to compare the outcomes for brain
metastases patients treated with adjuvant whole-brain radiotherapy (WBRT) or
stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS).
Methods. Between 1990 and 1995, 86 patients with brain metastases
received external beam WBRT with a megavoltage beam at our center.
Between January 2000 and July 2001, 48 patients with 84 tumors diagnosed as
cerebral metastases were treated with SRS using the Leksell Gamma Knife.
A comparative analysis of the outcomes in the two different groups was made to
determine a possible statistically significant difference in survival.
Results. In the WBRT group, the median follow-up was 11
months.
Thirty-nine patients (45.3%) experienced an improvement in neurologic
status.
The median overall survival was 5 months (range, 1-40 months).
In the SRS group, the median follow-up for this group was 9 months.
Thirty-four patients experienced an improvement in their neurologic signs and
symptoms.
The median survival was 12 months (range, 1-16 months).
Conclusion. SRS appears to be a safe and effective treatment option
for those patients with a limited number of brain metastases and in patients
with controlled or limited systemic disease.
PMID: 15043332 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
Source: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=15043332
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