Key Takeaways Regarding Use of 45 Gy Novel Radiotherapy in CNS Cancers

Rupesh Kotecha, MD, chief of Radiosurgery and director of Central Nervous System Metastasis with Baptist Health Miami Cancer Institute, discusses the key findings from an analysis centered around the use of pulse reduced dose rate intensity-modulated radiotherapy in patients with central nervous system (CNS) malignancies.

In the study, 18 patients with CNS malignancies were treated with 45 Gy of pulse reduced dose rate intensity-modulated radiation, leading to a median progression-free survival of 6.3 months (95% Cl, 0.9-11.6 months), and a median overall survival of 8.6 months (95% Cl, 4.9-12.3 months).

These data show that pulse reduced dose rate intensity-modulated radiotherapy can now derive benefit. This method provides disease control for a number of months among patients with CNS cancers and according to Kotecha, this technique can be used in clinical practice. Further research in this space will continue to work on improving control rates for patients, reducing toxicity, and more.

Transcription:

0:08 | The first key takeaway is that pulse reduced dose rate intensity-modulated radiotherapy is a technique that can be utilized in clinical practice now. Out of the institutions that have been using it, for example, those 5 that have published outcomes, this should be available across the country at other institutions. In our experience, it was relatively safe and is a feasible treatment for patients who have recurrent tumors. This technique can provide disease control for a number of months.

0:38 | The second takeaway is that this provides us with baseline estimates of what are the toxicity rates at certain thresholds of dose to the key organs at risk in the brain. Using these, we can now build and develop newer techniques to help reduce the toxicity more and potentially improve our control rates further. This is where our research is going.