Clinical Observation of Whole Brain Radiotherapy Concomitant with Targeted Therapy for Brain Metastasis in Non-small Cell Lung Cancer Patients with Chemotherapy Failure

Abstract

<br/><b>Objective</b>: To investigate the clinical effects of whole brain radiotherapy concomitant with targeted therapyfor brain metastasis in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients with chemotherapy failure. Materials and<br/><b>Methods</b>: Of the 157 NSCLC patients with chemotherapy failure followed by brain metastasis admitted in ourhospital from January 2009 to August 2012, the combination group (65 cases) were treated with EGFR-TKIcombined with whole brain radiotherapy while the radiotherapy group (92 cases) were given whole brainradiotherapy only. Short-term effects were evaluated based on the increased MRI in brain 1 month after wholebrain radiotherapy. Intracranial hypertension responses, hematological toxicity reactions and clinical effectsof both groups were observed. <br/><b>Results</b>: There were more adverse reactions in the combination group than inradiotherapy group, but no significant differences were observed between the two groups in response rate (RR)and disease control rate (DCR) (P>0.05). Medium progression free survival (PFS), medium overall survival(OS) and 1-year survival rate in combination group were 6.0 months, 10.6 months and 42.3%, while in theradiotherapy group they were 3.4 months, 7.7 months and 28.0%, respectively, which indicated that there weresignificant differences in PFS and OS between the two groups (P<0.05). Additionally, RPA grading of each factorin the combination group was a risk factor closely related with survival, with medium PFS in EGFR and KRASmutation patients being 8.2 months and 11.2 months, and OS being 3.6 months and 6.3 months, respectively.<br/><b>Conclusions</b>: Whole brain radiotherapy concomitant with target therapy is favorable for adverse reactiontolerance and clinical effects, being superior in treating brain metastasis in NSCLC patients with chemotherapyfailure and thus deserves to be widely applied in the clinic.