Whole-Brain Radiotherapy (WBRT) Versus WBRT and Integrated Boost Using Helical Tomotherapy for Multiple Brain Metastases

NCT00876759 · Status: UNKNOWN · Phase: PHASE2 · Type: INTERVENTIONAL · Enrollment: 160

Last updated 2009-04-07

No results posted yet for this study

Summary

Brain metastases occur in 20-40% of patients with primary extracerebral tumors. Despite important advances in therapy of malignant solid tumors and treatment of 1-3 brain metastases, multiple brain metastases continue to present a significant problem in attempting to prevent progression of disease and limit morbidity associated with therapy. The majority of patients who develop brain metastases have a short survival, effective palliation being transient. The median survival after diagnosis is as low as 3-6 months. However, there is some evidence that selected patients survive prolonged periods with vigorous therapeutic approach.

Specific therapeutic options are surgery, chemotherapy, conventional fractionated whole-brain radiotherapy (WBRT) and radiosurgery. Radiosurgery allows delivering of a single high dose fraction of radiation to targets of 3-3.5 cm maximum diameter. In patients with newly diagnosed brain metastases, a rapid decrease of symptoms, local tumor response rate of 73-90% and a median survival of 7-12 month have been reported.

WBRT alone is the treatment of choice for patients with multiple brain metastases, and for patients with single brain metastases not amenable to surgery or radiosurgery. Median survival after WBRT alone is 3-6 months.

WBRT and radiosurgery boost have been shown to improve survival in RPA class I patients and in patients with favorable histological status and squamous cell or non-small cell lung tumors. All randomized trials showed improved local control with the addition of radiosurgery to WBRT (Andrews, 2004).

WBRT in conjunction with radiosurgery improves local control and reduces the risk of new distant brain metastases, but most studies support that combined radiosurgery and WBRT does not improve the overall survival expect for patients without evidence of extracranial disease.

Helical Tomotherapy (HT) allows as a sole modality a new treatment option: Using HT, the advantage of applying a highly conformal boost dose to the metastases and WBRT can be combined in one treatment session. Therefore, it allows applying a high dose to multiple brain metastases in the sense of an integrated boost. The focus of this study is to investigate the efficacy and safety of WBRT with an integrated boost using this new treatment modality in comparison to the effects of conventional WBRT alone.

The principal objective of the trial is to assess the therapeutic efficacy of WBRT as compared to WBRT combined with integrated boost with HT delivered to patients with 2-10 brain metastases of solid tumors. The secondary objective is to evaluate the safety of WBRT as opposed to WBRT combined with integrated boost as delivered by HT in patients with 2-10 brain metastases.

Conditions

Interventions

RADIATION

whole brain radiotherapy

WBRT in 10 fractions to a total dose of 30Gy

RADIATION

whole brain radiotherapy with simultaneous boost

Total dose: 10 fractions: whole brain total dose: 30Gy, metastases: total dose 50Gy

Sponsors & Collaborators

  • University Hospital, Essen

    lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

  • Martin Stuschke, MD pHD · University Duisburg-Essen, Medical Faculty, Department of Radiation Oncology

Study Design

Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
NONE
Model
PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age
18 Years
Sex
ALL
Healthy Volunteers
No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start
2009-04-30
Primary Completion
2011-07-31
Completion
2013-07-31

Countries

  • Germany

Study Locations

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Entities

Read the full study record

This page highlights key information. For complete eligibility criteria, study locations, investigator contacts, and the full protocol, visit the original record on ClinicalTrials.gov.

View NCT00876759 on ClinicalTrials.gov