Precautionary radiation therapy on the brain for patients with small cell lung cancer

This study wanted to find out how effective it is to perform radiation therapy on the brain to prevent lung cancer spreading to the brain. The study found that by performing radiation therapy on the brain, there was a lower chance of the cancer spreading to the brain, but it was not clear if it improved overall survival.

Small cell lung cancer is quite aggressive, and often spreads through the body. A common place for it to spread to is the brain. Cancer in the brain is quite hard to treat. Radiation therapy is often used. An option to prevent the spread of the cancer to the brain is to perform radiation therapy on it before the cancer is detected there. It is not known if this reduces the chances of brain spread. It is also not known if this improves overall survival.

This study gathered information from 7 other smaller studies. Overall, information from 2114 patients was looked at. All of the patients had small cell lung cancer. The cancer had not spread to the brain in any of the patients.  The patients who had radiation therapy on their brain were compared to the patients who did not have radiation therapy on their brain.  

Overall, the patients who had radiation therapy on the brain were less likely to have the cancer spread to the brain. The patients who had radiation therapy on the brain survived better, but this was not a very clear result.

The study concluded that performing precautionary radiation therapy on the brain in patients with small cell lung cancer decreased the chances of the cancer spreading to the brain. It was not clear if the overall survival was impacted.

This is a very large study looking at results of many other studies.

Talk to your oncologist about your treatment plan.