Neurocognition in Patients With Brain Metastases Treated With Radiosurgery or Radiosurgery Plus Whole-Brain Irradiation: A Randomised Controlled Trial

Lancet Oncol. 2009 Nov 1;10(11):1037-1044, EL Chang, JS Wefel, KR Hess, PK Allen, FF Lang, DG Kornguth, RB Arbuckle, JM Swint, AS Shiu, MH Maor, CA Meyers

Abstract

Patients with newly diagnosed brain metastasis who were randomly assigned to SRS plus WBRT (28) were more likely to show a significant drop in HVLT–R total recall at 4 months than were patients randomly assigned to SRS alone (n = 30) (52% vs 24%, respectively), despite the fact that patients in the SRS alone group showed a higher overall brain tumour recurrence than did those patients in the SRS plus WBRT group. This finding persisted at 6-month follow-up.