Brain Radiotherapy May Not Be Necessary for Patients with Lung Cancer Metastases

The researchers found that whole brain radiotherapy could be beneficial in patients below the age of 60, but should not be used for standard treatment of most patients suffering from Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC) with brain metastases.

According to the researchers 11% of the participants randomized to whole-brain radiotherapy were too ill or died before they could receive the treatment. The assessment of quality-of-life was also limited, in order not to overburden the seriously ill patients.

Study author, Dr Paula Mulvenna, consultant clinical oncologist at the Newcastle Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (Newcastle upon Tyne, UK), said, "Whole brain radiotherapy was widely adopted into clinical practice based on the assumption it improves tumor control in patients with brain metastases. But in our lung cancer clinics, we were not seeing the improvements we had hoped for in our patients. Survival times are poor and have hardly changed since the 1980s. What's more, the technique's toxicity can be substantial and it can damage cognitive function."

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Newcastle Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust