title: Role of stereotactic radiosurgery in the treatment of brain metastases.
abstract: Stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) is a highly conformal form of radiation therapy designed to deliver a high dose in a single treatment to the target volume while sparing adjacent normal tissues. Its role in the treatment of brain metastases continues to be defined, but the recently reported RTOG 95-08 trial demonstrated a survival benefit with the addition of SRS to whole-brain radiation therapy in select patients with a single brain metastasis, as well as a local control and palliative benefit in select patients with 1 to 3 brain metastases. The authors review the role of SRS in the treatment of brain metastases and discuss the use of SRS with or without whole-brain radiation therapy, optimal dose of SRS, SRS delivery methods, and selection of appropriate patients for SRS.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiation Oncology, Huntsman Cancer Hospital, Salt Lake City, Utah 84112, USA. lisa.hazard@hci.utah.edu
authors.forename: Lisa J
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Hazard
authors.forename: Randy L
authors.initials: RL
authors.lastname: Jensen
authors.forename: Dennis C
authors.initials: DC
authors.lastname: Shrieve
mesh_terms: D001932:Brain Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality / Q000532:radiotherapy / Q000556:secondary* / Q000601:surgery*; D003704:Dementia / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D011832:Radiation Injuries / Q000453:epidemiology; D016634:Radiosurgery; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D016019:Survival Analysis