Brain metastases: an overview
- PMID: 25586424
- PMCID: PMC6093020
- DOI: 10.2217/cns.14.51
Brain metastases: an overview
Abstract
So far brain metastases represent a critical stage of a disease course and the frequency is increasing over the years. The treatment of brain metastases should be individualized for each patient: in case of single brain metastasis, surgery or radiosurgery should be considered as first options of treatment; in case of multiple lesions, whole-brain radiotherapy is the standard of care in association with systemic therapy or surgery/radiosurgery. Chemotherapy should be considered when surgery or radiation therapy are not possible. In the last decades, TKIs or monoclonal antibodies have shown increase in overall response rate and overall survival in Phase II-III trials. The aim of this paper is to make an overview of the current approaches in management of patients with brain metastases.
Keywords: brain metastases; individualized treatment; radiotherapy; systemic therapy.
Conflict of interest statement
References
-
- Nieder C, Spanne O, Mehta MP, Grosu AL, Geinitz H. Presentation, patterns of care, and survival in patients with brain metastases: what has changed in the last 20 years? Cancer. 2011;117(11):2505–2512. - PubMed
-
• Multi-institutional time-staggered analysis that shows that patterns of care in patients with brain metastases (BM) have changed significantly in the last 20 years.
-
- Eichler AF, Loeffler JS. Multidisciplinary management of brain metastases. Oncologist. 2007;12(7):884–898. - PubMed
-
- Christiaans MH, Kelder JC, Arnoldus EP, Tijssen CC. Prediction of intracranial metastases in cancer patients with headache. Cancer. 2002;94(7):2063–2068. - PubMed
-
- Davey P. Brain metastases: treatment options to improve outcomes. CNS Drugs. 2002;16(5):325–338. - PubMed
-
- Tosoni A, Franceschi E, Brandes AA. Chemotherapy in breast cancer patients with brain metastases: have new chemotherapic agents changed the clinical outcome? Crit. Rev. Oncol. Hematol. 2008;68(3):212–221. - PubMed
Publication types
MeSH terms
LinkOut - more resources
Full Text Sources
Other Literature Sources
Medical