Management of complications from brain metastasis treatment: a narrative review.

Chin Clin Oncol

Department of Radiation Oncology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, USA; Department of Radiation Oncology, University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine, Los Angeles, CA, USA.

Published: April 2022

Objective: To describe the range of potential side effects associated with modern brain metastasis treatment and provide evidenced-based guidance on the effective management of these side effects.

Background: Brain metastases are the most commonly diagnosed malignant intracranial tumor and have historically been associated with very poor prognosis. The standard treatment for brain metastases until the 1990s was whole-brain radiation therapy (WBRT) alone. Since then, however, numerous advances have established the role of neurosurgical resection, stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS), targeted systemic therapy, and immunotherapy in the multidisciplinary management of brain metastases and led to improvements in intracranial control, survival, and neurocognitive preservation among patients with brain metastases. As a result, however, brain metastasis treatment is associated with a wider range of potential side effects than ever before, and clinicians are tasked with the challenge of effectively managing these side effects without compromising cancer outcomes.

Methods: We performed a narrative review of peer-reviewed articles related to the management of side effects from multidisciplinary brain metastasis treatment and synthesized the data in the context of our clinical experience and practice.

Conclusions: In this review, we summarize the major complications from intracranial radiotherapy, neurosurgical resection, and brain metastasis directed systemic therapy with corresponding evidenced-based, modern management principles to guide the practicing oncologist.

Download full-text PDF

Source
http://dx.doi.org/10.21037/cco-21-90DOI Listing

Publication Analysis

Top Keywords

brain metastasis
20
metastasis treatment
16
side effects
16
brain metastases
16
brain
9
narrative review
8
range potential
8
potential side
8
management side
8
neurosurgical resection
8

Similar Publications

Purpose: Mammary carcinoma is comprised heterogeneous groups of cells with different metastatic potential. 4T1 mammary carcinoma cells metastasized to heart (4THM), liver (4TLM) and brain (4TBM) and demonstrate cancer-stem cell phenotype. Using these cancer cells we found thatTGF-β is the top upstream regulator of metastatic process.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The overall goal of this work was to assess the ability of Natural Killer cells to kill cultures of patient-derived glioblastoma cells. Herein we report impressive levels of NK-92 mediated killing of various patient-derived glioblastoma cultures observed at ET (effector: target) ratios of 5:1 and 1:1. This enabled direct comparison of the degree of glioblastoma cell loss across a broader range of glioblastoma cultures.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Glioblastoma (GBM) is the most common primary brain tumor in adults and has a median survival of less than 15 months. Advancements in the field of epigenetics have expanded our understanding of cancer biology and helped explain the molecular heterogeneity of these tumors. B-cell-specific Moloney murine leukemia virus insertion site-1 (Bmi-1) is a member of the highly conserved polycomb group (PcG) protein family that acts as a transcriptional repressor of multiple genes, including those that determine cell proliferation and differentiation.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Cerebral arteriovenous malformations (AVMs) are tangles of abnormal vessels with early arteriovenous (AV) shunting that can lead to intracerebral hemorrhage, seizures, neurologic deficit, or headache. To date, only a few cases of carcinomas metastasizing to pre-existing cerebral AVMs have been reported in the literature. However, renal clear cell carcinoma (RCC) brain metastases that exhibit early AV shunting, where AVM pathology is not present, are extremely rare.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background And Purpose: Working memory, a primary cognitive domain, is often impaired in pediatric brain tumor survivors, affecting their attention and processing speed. This study investigated the long-term effects of treatments, including surgery, radiotherapy (RT), and chemotherapy (CT), on working memory tracts in children with posterior fossa tumors (PFTs) using resting-state functional MRI (rs-fMRI) and diffusion MRI tractography.

Methods: This study included 16 medulloblastoma (MB) survivors treated with postoperative RT and CT, 14 pilocytic astrocytoma (PA) survivors treated with surgery alone, and 16 healthy controls from the Imaging Memory after Pediatric Cancer in children, adolescents, and young adults study (NCT04324450).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Want AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?

Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!