Radiotherapy in combination with systemic therapies for brain metastases: current status and progress.

Lei Liu; Wanqi Chen; Ruopeng Zhang; Yuekun Wang; Penghao Liu; Xin Lian; Fuquan Zhang; Yu Wang; Wenbin Ma

Brain metastases (BMs) are the most common cause of intracranial neoplasms in adults with poor prognosis. Most BMs originate from lung cancer, breast cancer, or melanoma. Radiotherapy (RT), including whole brain radiotherapy (WBRT) and stereotactic radiation surgery (SRS), has been widely explored and is considered a mainstay anticancer treatment for BMs. Over the past decade, the advent of novel systemic therapies has revolutionized the treatment of BMs. In this context, there is a strong rationale for using a combination of treatments based on RT, with the aim of achieving both local disease control and extracranial disease control. This review focuses on describing the latest progress in RT as well as the synergistic effects of the optimal combinations of RT and systemic treatment modalities for BMs, to provide perspectives on current treatments.

BRAIN metastasis; BRAIN tumors; STEREOTAXIC techniques; RADIOTHERAPY; PREVENTIVE medicine; BONE marrow cancer

Cancer Biology & Medicine, 2020, Vol 17, Issue 4, p910

2095-3941

Academic Journal

10.20892/j.issn.2095-3941.2020.0109