Bulletin du cancer
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Prophylactic cranial irradiation (PCI) plays a role in the management of lung cancer patients, especially small cell lung cancer (SCLC) patients. As multimodality treatments are now able to ensure better local control and a lower rate of extracranial metastases, brain relapse has become a major concern in lung cancer. As survival is poor after development of brain metastases (BM) in spite of specific treatment, PCI has been introduced in the 1970's. ⋯ Among long-term survivors, neuro-cognitive toxicity may be observed. Several approaches are being evaluated to reduce this possible toxicity. PCI has no place for other solid tumours at risk such as HER2+ breast cancer patients.
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Brain metastases affect 37% of patients suffering from metastatic melanoma, and their prognosis remains poor, with an overall survival lower than six months. At the moment, there is no standard therapeutic strategy for management of melanoma brain metastases. In some cases, having recourse to a systemic treatment is justified, for example, when brain metastases are combined with a progressive peripheral disease, or with unresecable brain lesions. ⋯ Temozolomide also shows some activity in the brain metastases treatment of melanoma that remains modest in monotherapy but seems interesting when it is combined with radiotherapy. The place of new drugs, in particular ipilimumab and vemurafenib, in the strategy of melanoma brain metastases treatment, still has to be defined and may improve the prognosis of these patients and their quality of life. The new targeted therapies, the widespread use of stereotactic radiosurgery and the improvement in neurosurgical operations would need a prospective clinical assessment, all the more so, in most of clinical studies, the presence of metastases is an exclusion criterion.
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Brain metastases management is still controversial even though many trials are trying to define the respective roles of neurosurgery, whole-brain radiotherapy, single-dose stereotactic radiotherapy and fractionated stereotactic radiotherapy. In this article, we review data from trials that examine the role of radiosurgery and fractionated stereotactic radiotherapy in the management of brain metastases.
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Esthesioneuroblastoma is an uncommon malignancy originating from olfactive epithelium. Men are more frequently affected than women. Nasal symptoms are the most common revealing signs. ⋯ Radiotherapy and surgery are the standard of care. Radiotherapy is benefic even in early stage disease. Chemotherapy is indicated in case of locally advanced or metastatic disease.