New approach to Brain Cancer radiation

A new approach to brain radiation may spare critical thinking skills in thousands of patients with brain cancer.
Doctors often treat patients with brain lesions or metastases with whole brain radiation.
It can be effective, but can also lead to troubling short-term memory deficits.
Now doctors at Carolinas HealthCare System in Charlotte have found patients who got targeted radiation, pinpointing those brain lesions, have fewer memory problems and better quality of life.
Dr. Anthony Asher compared the outcomes of treating advanced cancer patients with whole brain radiation plus focused radiation versus only focused therapy.
The addition of whole brain radiation did not extend patient survival and actually had greater toxic effects on the brain.
“If we cannot extend survival, then we have to make sure that we are not worsening patients’ quality of life,” Dr. Asher says.