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Journal ArticleDOI

Postoperative radiotherapy in the treatment of single metastases to the brain: a randomized trial.

04 Nov 1998-JAMA (American Medical Association)-Vol. 280, Iss: 17, pp 1485-1489
TL;DR: Patients with cancer and single metastases to the brain who receive treatment with surgical resection and postoperative radiotherapy have fewer recurrences of cancer in the brain and are less likely to die of neurologic causes than similar patients treated withurgical resection alone.
Abstract: Context.—For the treatment of a single metastasis to the brain, surgical resection combined with postoperative radiotherapy is more effective than treatment with radiotherapy alone. However, the efficacy of postoperative radiotherapy after complete surgical resection has not been established.Objective.—To determine if postoperative radiotherapy resulted in improved neurologic control of disease and increased survival.Design.—Multicenter, randomized, parallel group trial.Setting.—University-affiliated cancer treatment facilities.Patients.—Ninety-five patients who had single metastases to the brain that were treated with complete surgical resections (as verified by postoperative magnetic resonance imaging) between September 1989 and November 1997 were entered into the study.Interventions.—Patients were randomly assigned to treatment with postoperative whole-brain radiotherapy (radiotherapy group, 49 patients) or no further treatment (observation group, 46 patients) for the brain metastasis, with median follow-up of 48 weeks and 43 weeks, respectively.Main Outcome Measures.—The primary end point was recurrence of tumor in the brain; secondary end points were length of survival, cause of death, and preservation of ability to function independently.Results.—Recurrence of tumor anywhere in the brain was less frequent in the radiotherapy group than in the observation group (9 [18%] of 49 vs 32 [70%] of 46; P<.001). Postoperative radiotherapy prevented brain recurrence at the site of the original metastasis (5 [10%] of 49 vs 21 [46%] of 46; P<.001) and at other sites in the brain (7 [14%] of 49 vs 17 [37%] of 46; P <.01). Patients in the radiotherapy group were less likely to die of neurologic causes than patients in the observation group (6 [14%] of 43 who died vs 17 [44%] of 39; P =.003). There was no significant difference between the 2 groups in overall length of survival or the length of time that patients remained functionally independent.Conclusions.—Patients with cancer and single metastases to the brain who receive treatment with surgical resection and postoperative radiotherapy have fewer recurrences of cancer in the brain and are less likely to die of neurologic causes than similar patients treated with surgical resection alone.
Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The ESMO Guidelines Committee concluded that current state-of-the-art oncology practices in France, Belgium, and the Netherlands are suitable for frontline use and recommend further research into these practices.

2,349 citations


Additional excerpts

  • ...Postoperative WBRT or SRS is generally recommended after surgical resection [I, A] [274]....

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01 Jan 2014
TL;DR: Lymphedema is a common complication after treatment for breast cancer and factors associated with increased risk of lymphedEMA include extent of axillary surgery, axillary radiation, infection, and patient obesity.

1,988 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
07 Jun 2006-JAMA
TL;DR: Compared with SRS alone, the use of W BRT plus SRS did not improve survival for patients with 1 to 4 brain metastases, but intracranial relapse occurred considerably more frequently in those who did not receive WBRT.
Abstract: ContextIn patients with brain metastases, it is unclear whether adding up-front whole-brain radiation therapy (WBRT) to stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) has beneficial effects on mortality or neurologic function compared with SRS alone.ObjectiveTo determine if WBRT combined with SRS results in improvements in survival, brain tumor control, functional preservation rate, and frequency of neurologic death.Design, Setting, and PatientsRandomized controlled trial of 132 patients with 1 to 4 brain metastases, each less than 3 cm in diameter, enrolled at 11 hospitals in Japan between October 1999 and December 2003.InterventionsPatients were randomly assigned to receive WBRT plus SRS (65 patients) or SRS alone (67 patients).Main Outcome MeasuresThe primary end point was overall survival; secondary end points were brain tumor recurrence, salvage brain treatment, functional preservation, toxic effects of radiation, and cause of death.ResultsThe median survival time and the 1-year actuarial survival rate were 7.5 months and 38.5% (95% confidence interval, 26.7%-50.3%) in the WBRT + SRS group and 8.0 months and 28.4% (95% confidence interval, 17.6%-39.2%) for SRS alone (P = .42). The 12-month brain tumor recurrence rate was 46.8% in the WBRT + SRS group and 76.4% for SRS alone group (P<.001). Salvage brain treatment was less frequently required in the WBRT + SRS group (n = 10) than with SRS alone (n = 29) (P<.001). Death was attributed to neurologic causes in 22.8% of patients in the WBRT + SRS group and in 19.3% of those treated with SRS alone (P = .64). There were no significant differences in systemic and neurologic functional preservation and toxic effects of radiation.ConclusionsCompared with SRS alone, the use of WBRT plus SRS did not improve survival for patients with 1 to 4 brain metastases, but intracranial relapse occurred considerably more frequently in those who did not receive WBRT. Consequently, salvage treatment is frequently required when up-front WBRT is not used.Trial Registrationumin.ac.jp/ctr Identifier: C000000412

1,962 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: After radiosurgery or surgery of a limited number of brain metastases, adjuvant WBRT reduces intracranial relapses and neurologic deaths but fails to improve the duration of functional independence and overall survival.
Abstract: Purpose This European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer phase III trial assesses whether adjuvant whole-brain radiotherapy (WBRT) increases the duration of functional independence after surgery or radiosurgery of brain metastases. Patients and Methods Patients with one to three brain metastases of solid tumors (small-cell lung cancer excluded) with stable systemic disease or asymptomatic primary tumors and WHO performance status (PS) of 0 to 2 were treated with complete surgery or radiosurgery and randomly assigned to adjuvant WBRT (30 Gy in 10 fractions) or observation (OBS). The primary end point was time to WHO PS deterioration to more than 2. Results Of 359 patients, 199 underwent radiosurgery, and 160 underwent surgery. In the radiosurgery group, 100 patients were allocated to OBS, and 99 were allocated to WBRT. After surgery, 79 patients were allocated to OBS, and 81 were allocated to adjuvant WBRT. The median time to WHO PS more than 2 was 10.0 months (95% CI, 8.1 to 11.7 months) after OBS and 9.5 months (95% CI, 7.8 to 11.9 months) after WBRT (P .71). Overall survival was similar in the WBRT and OBS arms (median, 10.9 v 10.7 months, respectively; P .89). WBRT reduced the 2-year relapse rate both at initial sites (surgery: 59% to 27%, P .001; radiosurgery: 31% to 19%, P .040) and at new sites (surgery: 42% to 23%, P .008; radiosurgery: 48% to 33%, P .023). Salvage therapies were used more frequently after OBS than after WBRT. Intracranial progression caused death in 78 (44%) of 179 patients in the OBS arm and in 50 (28%) of 180 patients in the WBRT arm. Conclusion After radiosurgery or surgery of a limited number of brain metastases, adjuvant WBRT reduces intracranial relapses and neurologic deaths but fails to improve the duration of functional independence and overall survival. J Clin Oncol 29:134-141. © 2010 by American Society of Clinical Oncology

1,565 citations


Cites background from "Postoperative radiotherapy in the t..."

  • ...The only randomized study so far has been published by Patchell et al.(12) This study randomly assigned 95 patients with a single brain metastasis to receive surgery plus adjuvant WBRT or surgery alone....

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  • ...The only randomized study so far has been published by Patchell et al.12 This study randomly assigned 95 patients with a single brain metastasis to receive surgery plus adjuvant WBRT or surgery alone....

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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This manuscript focuses on the NCCN Guidelines Panel recommendations for the workup, primary treatment, risk reduction strategies, and surveillance specific to DCIS.
Abstract: Ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) of the breast represents a heterogeneous group of neoplastic lesions in the breast ducts. The goal for management of DCIS is to prevent the development of invasive breast cancer. This manuscript focuses on the NCCN Guidelines Panel recommendations for the workup, primary treatment, risk reduction strategies, and surveillance specific to DCIS.

1,545 citations

References
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Book ChapterDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the product-limit (PL) estimator was proposed to estimate the proportion of items in the population whose lifetimes would exceed t (in the absence of such losses), without making any assumption about the form of the function P(t).
Abstract: In lifetesting, medical follow-up, and other fields the observation of the time of occurrence of the event of interest (called a death) may be prevented for some of the items of the sample by the previous occurrence of some other event (called a loss). Losses may be either accidental or controlled, the latter resulting from a decision to terminate certain observations. In either case it is usually assumed in this paper that the lifetime (age at death) is independent of the potential loss time; in practice this assumption deserves careful scrutiny. Despite the resulting incompleteness of the data, it is desired to estimate the proportion P(t) of items in the population whose lifetimes would exceed t (in the absence of such losses), without making any assumption about the form of the function P(t). The observation for each item of a suitable initial event, marking the beginning of its lifetime, is presupposed. For random samples of size N the product-limit (PL) estimate can be defined as follows: L...

52,450 citations

Book ChapterDOI
TL;DR: The analysis of censored failure times is considered in this paper, where the hazard function is taken to be a function of the explanatory variables and unknown regression coefficients multiplied by an arbitrary and unknown function of time.
Abstract: The analysis of censored failure times is considered. It is assumed that on each individual arc available values of one or more explanatory variables. The hazard function (age-specific failure rate) is taken to be a function of the explanatory variables and unknown regression coefficients multiplied by an arbitrary and unknown function of time. A conditional likelihood is obtained, leading to inferences about the unknown regression coefficients. Some generalizations are outlined.

28,264 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: It is concluded that patients with cancer and a single metastasis to the brain who receive treatment with surgical resection plus radiotherapy live longer, have fewer recurrences of cancer in the brain, and have a better quality of life than similar patients treated with radiotherapy alone.
Abstract: To assess the efficacy of surgical resection of brain metastases from extracranial primary cancer, we randomly assigned patients with a single brain metastasis to either surgical removal of the brain tumor followed by radiotherapy (surgical group) or needle biopsy and radiotherapy (radiation group). Forty-eight patients (25 in the surgical group and 23 in the radiation group) formed the study group; 6 other patients (11 percent) were excluded from the study because on biopsy their lesions proved to be either second primary tumors or inflammatory or infectious processes. Recurrence at the site of the original metastasis was less frequent in the surgical group than in the radiation group (5 of 25 [20 percent] vs. 12 of 23 [52 percent]; P less than 0.02). The overall length of survival was significantly longer in the surgical group (median, 40 weeks vs. 15 weeks in the radiation group; P less than 0.01), and the patients treated with surgery remained functionally independent longer (median, 38 weeks vs. 8 weeks in the radiation group; P less than 0.005). We conclude that patients with cancer and a single metastasis to the brain who receive treatment with surgical resection plus radiotherapy live longer, have fewer recurrences of cancer in the brain, and have a better quality of life than similar patients treated with radiotherapy alone.

2,803 citations


"Postoperative radiotherapy in the t..." refers background or methods in this paper

  • ...Metastases can recur after treatment in 2 ways: (1) there can be recurrence at the original site in the brain or (2) new metastasis at a brain site other than the original one (distant metastasis)....

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  • ...Prior to randomization, patients were stratified by (1) extent of disease (brain metastasis only, brain metastasis plus primary site only, and brain metastasis plus primary site plus at least 1 additional site) and (2) primary tumor type (lung, breast, and other)....

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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: It is coclude that patients with single brain metastasis and stable extracranial tumor activity should be treated with surgical excision and radiotherapy, and that radiotherapy alone appears to be sufficient.
Abstract: Most patients treated for single or multiple brain metastases die from progression of extracranial tumor activity. This makes it uncertain whether the combination of neurosurgery and radiotherapy for treatment of single brain metastasis will lead to better results than less invasive treatment with radiotherapy alone. The effect of neurosurgical excision plus radiotherapy was compared with radiotherapy alone in a prospectively randomized trial with 63 evaluable patients with systemic cancer and a radiological diagnosis of single brain metastasis. Radiotherapy was given to the whole brain by a novel scheme of 2 fractions per day of each 2 Gy for a total of 40 Gy. Before randomization, patients were stratified by site (lung cancer vs nonlung cancer) and status of extracranial disease (progressive vs stable). Survival as such and functionally independent survival (FIS; defined as World Health Organization performance status < or = 1 and neurological function < or = 1) were compared between both treatment arms. The combined treatment compared with radiotherapy alone led to a longer survival (p = 0.04) and a longer FIS (p = 0.06). This was most pronounced in patients with stable extracranial disease (median survival, 12 vs 7 mo; median FIS, 9 vs 4 mo). Patients with progressive extracranial cancer had a median overall survival of 5 months and a FIS of 2.5 months irrespective of given treatment. Improvement in functional status occurred more rapidly and for longer periods of time after neurosurgical excision and radiotherapy than after radiotherapy alone.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

963 citations


"Postoperative radiotherapy in the t..." refers background or methods in this paper

  • ...Metastases can recur after treatment in 2 ways: (1) there can be recurrence at the original site in the brain or (2) new metastasis at a brain site other than the original one (distant metastasis)....

    [...]

  • ...Prior to randomization, patients were stratified by (1) extent of disease (brain metastasis only, brain metastasis plus primary site only, and brain metastasis plus primary site plus at least 1 additional site) and (2) primary tumor type (lung, breast, and other)....

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