The role of brachytherapy in the management of brain metastases: a systematic review
Bhargava Chitti, Sharad Goyal, Jonathan H. Sherman, Anthony J. Caputy, Mehrdad Sarfaraz, Gizem Cifter, Hamid Aghdam, Yuan James Rao
Abstract
PURPOSE: Brain metastases have a highly variable prognosis depending on the primary tumor and associated prognostic factors. Standard of care for patients with these tumors includes craniotomy, stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS), or whole brain radiotherapy (WBRT) for patients with brain metastases. Brachytherapy shows great promise as a therapy for brain metastases, but its role has not been sufficiently explored in the current literature. MATERIAL AND METHODS: , 2018. Of the 596 articles initially identified, 37 met the inclusion criteria, of which 14 were review articles, while the remaining 23 papers with detailing individual studies were fully analyzed. RESULTS: I, with low rates of radiation necrosis. CONCLUSIONS: For a variety of reasons including absence of physician expertise in brachytherapy, lack of published data on treatment outcomes, and rates of radiation necrosis, brachytherapy is not presently a part of standard paradigm for brain metastases. However, our review indicates brachytherapy as a modality that offers excellent local control and quality of life, and suggested that its use should be further studied.