Guidelines for treating brain metastases should be overhauled, UCLA study finds

FINDINGSA study by UCLA researchers has found that the National Comprehensive Cancer Network ’s guidelines for doctors treating people with three or more brain metastases — cancer cells that have spread from a primary tumor located in a different part of the body — are inconsistent and should be updated.They also found that there is not enough data to determine which of the two main approaches for treating people that have between three and 10 brain metastases — stereotactic radiosurgery and whole brain radiotherapy — is more effective, although more doctors in an international survey said that stereotactic radiosurgery is their preferred treatment method.BACKGROUND                                                             Every year approximately 100,000 people in the United States are diagnosed with brain metastases. The risk for metastatic brain tumors depends on the type of cancer people have and how advanced their cancer is when it is first diagnosed. Brain metastases are becoming a more common problem because people with cancer are living longer thanks to improved treatments, giving cancer more time to spread to other parts of the  body.Stereotactic radiosurgery is radiation therapy that precisely targets small brain tumors without damaging healthy tissue. Whole brain radiotherapy involves radiating the entire brain but can cause serious side effects such as decreased cognitive function.  METHODTh...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news