Treatment Outcomes and Dose Rate Effects Following Gamma Knife Stereotactic Radiosurgery for Vestibular Schwannomas.

Background: Gamma Knife radiosurgery (GKRS; Elekta AB) remains a well-established treatment modality for vestibular schwannomas. Despite highly effective tumor control, further research is needed toward optimizing long-term functional outcomes. Whereas dose-rate effects may impact post-treatment toxicities given tissue dose-response relationships, potential effects remain largely unexplored.

Local control and overall survival for adjuvant stereotactic radiosurgery in patients with residual or recurrent disease.

Prior studies of post-operative stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) have not distinguished between Adjuvant SRS (ARS) versus Adjuvant SRS to residual/recurrent disease (ARD). In this study, we defined ARS and ARD and investigated local control (LC), overall survival (OS), distant development of brain metastases (DBF), and leptomeningeal disease (LMD). We retrospectively identified BM patients who received surgical resection and SRS for BM from an IRB approved database between Jan 2009-Aug 2015.

Breast cancer subtype as a predictor for outcomes and control in the setting of brain metastases treated with stereotactic radiosurgery.

We investigated effects of breast cancer subtype on overall survival (OS), local and distant control, and time from initial diagnosis to brain metastases (BM). We also investigated advances in graded prognostic assessment (GPA) scores. A cohort of 72 patients treated for BM from breast cancer with Gamma Knife stereotactic radiosurgery at our institution from 2000 to 2014 had subtyping available and were used for this study.

Control of brain metastases from radioresistant tumors treated by stereotactic radiosurgery.

Renal cell carcinoma, sarcoma, and melanoma are considered to be "radioresistant" tumor histologies. Brain metastases (BM) from these tumors are considered unlikely to be controlled using the relatively low doses used in whole brain radiotherapy (WBRT). Our objective was to analyze the efficacy of stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) on local control and overall survival of BM from radioresistant primary tumors.

Does lung cancer mutation status and targeted therapy predict for outcomes and local control in the setting of brain metastases treated with radiation?

Background: We investigated effects of genetic alterations in epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK), and Kirsten rat sarcoma viral oncogene homolog (KRAS) on overall survival (OS) and local control after stereotactic radiosurgery for brain metastases in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

Methods: A cohort of 89 out of 262 NSCLC patients (2003-2013) treated with gamma knife radiosurgery for brain metastases had genotyping available and were selected as our study population.

Results: Median follow-up was 12 months.

The Energy Index Does Not Affect Local Control of Brain Metastases Treated by Gamma Knife Stereotactic Radiosurgery.

Background: The energy index (EI) is a measure of dose homogeneity within a target volume calculated by the integral dose divided by the product of prescription dose and tumor volume.

Objective: To assess whether a higher EI is associated with greater local control for brain metastases (BMs) treated by Gamma Knife radiosurgery (GKRS).

Methods: We reviewed all patients treated with GKRS for BM at our institution between January 2009 and February 2014.

Outcomes of gamma knife radiosurgery, bi-modality & tri-modality treatment regimens for patients with one or multiple brain metastases: the Columbia University Medical Center experience.

Optimal treatment of brain metastases (BMs) is debatable. However, surgery or gamma knife radiosurgery (GKRS) improves survival when combined with whole brain radiotherapy (WBRT) versus WBRT alone. We retrospectively reviewed an institutional database of patients treated with GKRS for BMs from 1998 to 2013 to explore effects of single or multi-modality therapies on survival.