Radiat Oncol
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Patients with brain metastases represent a heterogeneous group where selection of the most appropriate treatment depends on many patient- and disease-related factors. Eventually, a considerable proportion of patients are treated with palliative approaches such as whole-brain radiotherapy. Whole-brain radiotherapy in combination with chemotherapy has recently gained increasing attention and is hoped to augment the palliative effect of whole-brain radiotherapy alone and to extend survival in certain subsets of patients with controlled extracranial disease and good performance status. ⋯ Because the blood-brain barrier is partially disrupted in most macroscopic metastases, systemically administered agents can gain access to such tumor sites. Our systematic literature review suggests that both chemotherapy and radiochemotherapy for newly diagnosed brain metastases need further critical evaluation before standard clinical implementation. A potential chemotherapy indication might exist as palliative option for patients who have progressive disease after radiotherapy.