Whole Brain Radiotherapy Combined with Stereotactic Radiosurgery versus Stereotactic Radiosurgery Alone for Brain Metastases

Background: The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of whole brain radiotherapy (WBRT) combined with streotactic radiosurgery versus stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) alone for patients with brain metastases. Materials and
Methods: This was a retrospective study that evaluated the results of 46 patients treated for brain metastases at Dr. Abdurrahman Yurtaslan Ankara Oncology Training and Research Hospital, Radiation Oncology Department, between January 2012 and January 2015. Twenty-four patients were treated with WBRT+SRS while 22 patients were treated with only SRS.
Results: Time to local recurrence was 9.7 months in the WBRT+SRS arm and 8.3 months in SRS arm, the difference not being statistically significant (p= 0.7). Local recurrence rate was higher in the SRS alone arm but again without significance (p=0,06).
Conclusions: In selected patient group with limited number (one to four) of brain metastases SRS alone can be considered as a treatment option and WBRT may be omitted in the initial treatment.