ArticleMedicine and pharmacy reports2019
Survival and quality of life after whole brain radiotherapy with 3D conformal boost in the treatment of brain metastases.
Article in Medicine and pharmacy reports, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers.
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Who cites it
14 citing papers in PubMed, 21 citations in OpenAlex.
- Longitudinal remodeling of brain metastasis resection cavities after adjuvant gamma knife radiosurgery.Journal of neuro-oncology · 2026Article
- Cancer metastasis: molecular mechanisms and therapeutic interventions.Molecular biomedicine · 2025Review
- Is Whole-Brain Radiotherapy for Brain Metastases an Overestimated Therapy? A Retrospective Study of Real-World Data Using Landmark Analyses.Cancer medicine · 2024Article
- Role of memantine to mitigate radiation-induced cognitive dysfunction in brain metastasis patient receiving whole brain radiotherapy: a systematic review.Radiation oncology journal · 2024Article
- Article
- Pathological Complete Response as Outcome Modifier in Breast Cancer Patients and Brain Metastasis.Indian journal of surgical oncology · 2024Article
- Review
- The Holistic Approach to Cancer Pain Management.The Ulster medical journal · 2022Article
- Glial activation positron emission tomography imaging in radiation treatment of breast cancer brain metastases.Physics and imaging in radiation oncology · 2022Review
- Setup uncertainties and appropriate setup margins in the head-tilted supine position of whole-brain radiotherapy (WBRT).PloS one · 2022Article
- Radiotherapy: Clinical pearls for primary care.Canadian family physician Medecin de famille canadien · 2021Article
- Challenges and Novel Opportunities of Radiation Therapy for Brain Metastases in Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer.Cancers · 2021Review
- Article
- Molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying brain metastasis of breast cancer.Cancer metastasis reviews · 2020Review
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundBrain metastases are the most frequent intracranial neoplasms in adults. Although overall survival (OS) is an important endpoint in patients receiving radiotherapy, given their poor life expectancy in general, quality of life is becoming an increasingly useful endpoint. Objectives: to evaluate whole brain radiotherapy (WBRT) with 3D conformal boost in brain metastases patients with regard to OS and quality of life.
methodsDuring April 2015-May 2017, a total of 35 patients with ≤5, previously untreated, inoperable brain metastases were included prospectively. All patients underwent WBRT followed by 3D conformal boost to the metastatic lesions. EORTC quality of life questionnaires QLQ-C30 and QLQ-BN20 were used at baseline and at end of treatment. The mean initial and final scores were compared using Student test. One-year OS with brain metastases was computed with Kaplan Maier method.
resultsMedian survival with brain metastases was 4.43 months (0.73-78.53). The one-year OS for patients with one metastasis was 42% versus 15% for more than one (p<0.04). The presence of extracerebral metastases significantly decreased OS from 39% without extracerebral metastases to 19%. (p<0.05). Quality of life improved significantly in several functional domains: physical (48 vs 60.29), role functioning (28.1 vs 44.7), emotional (47.1 vs 80.2), global health status (40.9 vs 62.3). Symptom scores decreased significantly in most items, corresponding to an improvement in the symptom burden: headache (61.9 vs 0.9), nausea and vomiting (45.7 vs 7.1), visual disorder (26.3 vs 9.2), seizures (30.4 vs 0.9), motor dysfunction (46.6 vs 17.1). Symptom scores for fatigue and drowsiness increased significantly (51.1 vs 74.9, respectively 37.1 vs 70.4), indicating worsening of symptoms.
conclusionsWBRT with 3D conformal boost is a feasible technique which improves quality of life in brain metastases patients. Since survival is limited, the assessment of quality of life is a good indicator of the treatment outcome.
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