A matched-pair analysis comparing whole-brain radiotherapy with and without a stereotactic boost for intracerebral contr
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RESEARCH
Open Access
A matched-pair analysis comparing wholebrain radiotherapy with and without a stereotactic boost for intracerebral control and overall survival in patients with one to three cerebral metastases Dirk Rades1*, Stefan Janssen1,2, Amira Bajrovic3, Mai Trong Khoa4, Theo Veninga5 and Steven E. Schild6
Abstract Background: Twelve years ago, a randomized trial demonstrated that a radiosurgery boost added to whole-brain radiotherapy (WBRT) improved intracerebral control (IC) in patients with one to three cerebral metastases. Overall survival (OS) was improved only in the subgroup of patients with a single metastasis but not in the entire cohort. The present study compared both regimens in a different scenario outside a randomized trial. Methods: A total of 252 patients with one to three cerebral metastases were included. Eighty-four patients receiving WBRT plus a planned stereotactic boost and 168 patients receiving WBRT alone were individually matched 1:2 for nine factors including fractionation of WBRT, age, gender, performance score, primary tumor, number of cerebral metastases, extracerebral metastases, recursive partitioning analysis class, and time between cancer diagnosis and WBRT. Each group of three patients was required to match for all nine factors. Both groups were compared for IC and OS. Results: IC rates at 6, 12, 18 and 24 months were 88, 71, 45 and 22% after WBRT plus stereotactic boost vs. 75, 48, 38 and 22% after WBRT alone (p = 0.005). OS rates at 6, 12, 18 and 24 months were 76, 53, 32 and 25% after WBRT plus stereotactic boost and 67, 45, 29 and 20% after WBRT alone (p = 0.10). In patients with a single lesion, OS rates were also not significantly different (p = 0.12). Conclusions: Similar to the previous randomized trial from 2004, this matched-pair study showed that a stereotactic boost in addition to WBRT significantly improved IC but not OS. Keywords: Cerebral metastases, Whole-brain radiotherapy, Stereotactic boost, Intracerebral control, Overall survival
Introduction About 40% of all cancer patients who developed cerebral metastases present with up to three lesions [1, 2]. These patients have a more favorable survival than those patients with more metastases. It has been suggested that patients with up to three lesions may benefit from local therapies such as neurosurgical resection, stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) and fractionated stereotactic radiotherapy (FSRT) [2]. The optimal treatment approach is yet to be defined. * Correspondence: [email protected] 1 Department of Radiation Oncology, University of Lübeck, Ratzeburger Allee 160, 23538 Lübeck, Germany Full list of author information is available at the end of the article
Several randomized trials demonstrated that WBRT plus a stereotactic boost resulted in better intracerebral control (IC) than SRS alone without improving overall survival (OS) [3–6]. Since both intracerebral recurrence and WBRT can decrease neurocognitive function, it is not absolutely clear, whether SRS alone is appropriate for one to three cerebra
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