BACKGROUND To examine stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) following whole brain radiotherapy for metastases in eloquent, central brain locations: brainstem, thalamus, and basal ganglia. METHODS We conducted a retrospective review of patients with metastases in eloquent, central brain locations who were treated with SRS between January 2000 and April 2012. All patients had whole brain radiotherapy...

In this study, we examined the factors contributing to brain radiation necrosis and its predictors of patients treated with Cyberknife radiosurgery. A total of 94 patients with primary or metastatic brain tumours having been treated with Cyberknife radiotherapy from Sep. 2006 to Oct. 2011 were collected and retrospectively analyzed. Skull based tracking was used to deliver radiation to 104 targ...

The vast majority of patients with brain metastases from breast cancer have extracranial metastases, e.g., in the liver, lungs or bones, with serious impact on prognosis. Limited research has been performed on patients with brain-only disease. We analyzed patterns of treatment, brain control and survival in uni- and multivariate analyses. All 25 patients with brain-only disease were treated wit...

Introduction: Germinomas are malignant intracranial germ cell tumors, usually found in pineal region. These tumors are exquisitely sensitive to radiation. Whole ventricle radiation (RT) with a boost field to the primary tumor is the standard treatment for localized germinomas. RapidArc radiotherapy is considered an excellent technological advance that shows great potential for producing highly ...

BACKGROUND Despite improvements in brain surgery and radiotherapy, patients with brain metastases (BM) from breast cancer still have a poor prognosis. The aim of the present study is to evaluate the outcome of a multimodal therapeutic strategy in an unselected cohort of patients. METHODS We retrospectively reviewed 24 breast cancer patients who developed BM and were treated with brain surgery...

Ipilimumab, an antibody that enhances T-cell activation, may augment immunogenicity of tumor cells that are injured by radiation therapy. We hypothesized that patients with melanoma brain metastasis treated with both ipilimumab and radiotherapy would have improved overall survival, and that the sequence of treatments may affect disease control in the brain. We analyzed the clinical and radiogra...

BACKGROUND Surgery followed by adjuvant radiotherapy is a well-established treatment paradigm for brain metastases. OBJECTIVE To examine the effect of postsurgical whole-brain radiotherapy (WBRT) or localized radiotherapy (LRT), including stereotactic radiosurgery and intraoperative radiotherapy, on the rate of recurrence both local and distal to the resection site in the treatment of brain m...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Brain metastasis is a relatively uncommon event in the natural history of soft tissue sarcomas. The increasing use of chemotherapy may have caused a reduction in local relapses as well as distant failures leading to an improvement in survival, thereby allowing metachronous seeding of the brain, a sanctuary site. The purpose of this report is to increase awareness amongst ...

Postoperative external beam radiotherapy was considered the standard adjuvant treatment for patients with glioblastoma multiforme until the advent of using the drug temozolomide (TMZ) in addition to radiotherapy. High-dose volume should be focal, minimizing whole brain irradiation. Modern imaging, using several magnetic resonance sequences, has improved the planning target volume definition. Th...

Aims. To evaluate whether reduced waiting time influences survival of patients treated with whole-brain radiotherapy (WBRT) for brain metastases. Materials and Methods. Retrospective intention-to-treat study including 110 patients treated with primary WBRT (typically 10 fractions of 3 Gy; no other treatment between diagnosis and WBRT). Uni- and multivariate tests were performed. Results. Median...