A new study is taking a closer look at the benefits versus risks for lung cancer patients to undergo preventative brain radiation therapy as a means to stop cancer from spreading to the brain.
Study results show that while preventative brain radiation for patients with non-small cell lung cancer - the most common form of lung cancer - does reduce the chance of developing brain metastases, it impacts some short-term and long-term memory.
The study also reveals that preventative brain radiation does not increase survival and has no significant impact on quality of life, says study co-investigator Benjamin Movsas, M.D., chair of the Department of Radiation Oncology at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit.
"These findings offer a more complete perspective regarding this intervention for patients with non-small cell lung cancer," Movsas says. "We now need to develop strategies to help shift the benefit-risk ratio for this treatment."
Dr. Movsas will present the study results Nov. 2 at the plenary session for the 51st annual American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) meeting. Out of nearly 1,000 abstracts submitted, only a handful of study abstracts, including the one from Henry Ford, were selected for the ASTRO plenary session.
The study is part of a national Radiation Therapy Oncology Group (RTOG) analysis of prophylactic cranial irradiation for patients with stage III non-small cell lung cancer.
Previous studies have found this preventative type of external beam radiation therapy that treats the entire brain - known as prophylactic cranial irradiation (PCI) - can reduce the risk of cancer spreading to the brain in patients with non-small cell lung cancer, as well as its sister disease, small-cell lung cancer. The risk of cancer developing in the brain increases as people with non-small cell lung cancer live longer with more effective treatments.
To learn more about how PCI impacts a patient's quality of life and cognitive function, Dr. Movsas and his colleagues tracked the progress of 340 patients with stage III non-small cell lung cancer for one year after receiving PCI, a 10-minute treatment that occurs once a day for two to three weeks.