Is radiotherapy useful for brain metastases from lung cancer

summary

The second brother suffers from lung cancer. Recently, he always feels headache. The doctor says that the cancer cells have brain metastasis and can be treated with radiotherapy. It is said that radiotherapy has many side effects. Now let me introduce to you whether radiotherapy is useful for brain metastasis of lung cancer.

Is radiotherapy useful for brain metastases from lung cancer

First: in recent years, it has been recognized that whole brain radiotherapy combined with chemotherapy can improve the survival of patients with brain metastases, and many drugs can enter the brain. At present, the comprehensive treatment of radiotherapy, surgery and chemotherapy for brain metastases from lung cancer has become a research hotspot.

Second, whole brain radiotherapy has become the standard treatment for brain metastases, especially for patients with multiple brain metastases and elderly patients with poor general condition. Whole brain radiotherapy can effectively improve the neurological symptoms and function, improve the quality of life and the median survival time of 3-6 months.

Third: the main side effects of whole brain radiotherapy are radiation encephalopathy, drowsiness, neurological dysfunction, dementia, etc. Therefore, the necessity of whole brain prophylactic irradiation is controversial. The biological characteristics of small cell lung cancer is different from that of non-small cell lung cancer. The incidence of brain metastasis in small cell lung cancer is 80% after 2 years. Therefore, some people advocate whole brain prophylactic radiotherapy. However, randomized studies have shown that whole brain prophylactic radiotherapy can reduce the incidence of brain metastasis, but it does not improve the 5-year survival rate. Whole brain prophylactic radiotherapy is only used for patients with small cell lung cancer undergoing radical operation and those with complete remission after radiotherapy and chemotherapy.

matters needing attention

Lung cancer is prone to brain metastasis, this situation is not optimistic, generally need to take timely treatment measures to control, can use whole brain radiotherapy treatment scheme, for the recovery of the disease is certainly more advantages than disadvantages.