How Brain Metastases From Lung Cancer Are Treated
If diagnosed and treated early, brain metastases usually respond to therapy. Your treatment plan will depend on your tumors (size, number, location in the brain, and genetic characteristics); the extent of disease outside the brain; and your overall health. Treatment may include:
Surgery Surgery may be an option for people with only one or two brain metastases that are easy to access and remove. It may also work for people who have a larger tumor that’s causing compressive symptoms, and removing even a portion of the tumor may help alleviate symptoms. According to a review, surgery is commonly followed by radiation therapy.
Radiation This therapy uses X-rays or other high-energy beams to kill cancer cells. Different methods of radiation are used to treat brain metastases.
Systemic Therapy With systemic therapies, including chemotherapy, immunotherapy, and targeted therapy, drugs travel through the bloodstream to reach cancer cells throughout the body.
Targeted therapies can identify and attack specific cancer cells with minimal harm to normal cells. For people with lung cancer cells that have specific mutations (such as EGFR and ALK), these therapies can be highly effective.
But if your lung cancer doesn’t carry these specific mutations or has spread elsewhere in the body, your doctor may consider other systemic therapies, such as immunotherapy (which uses medicine to activate your own immune system to recognize and kill cancer cells) or chemotherapy.
Palliative care can help mitigate the side effects of both the cancer and its treatment and significantly improve quality of life. Information and support are available for people with lung cancer and their families at Go2 for Lung Cancer, the American Cancer Society, and the Global Resource for Advancing Cancer Education (GRACE).
Looking Ahead: After Brain Metastases Treatment
After radiation, surgery, or systemic treatment for brain metastases, your doctor will most likely order an MRI to determine how much of the tumor is gone and then follow up with MRIs every few months.
The prognosis for people with NSCLC that’s metastasized to the brain is highly variable, so it’s important to keep in mind that statistics don’t necessarily pertain to your situation. While the outlook was traditionally poor for people with NSCLC and brain metastases, advancements in treatment are continually improving survival rates.
Clinical trials are regularly being conducted to find ways to improve treatment for people with NSCLC that’s metastasized to the brain. Ask your doctor whether you may be a candidate for such a trial. You can also search for a clinical trial in your area at ClinicalTrials.gov.
“Brain metastasis has traditionally been an area that was difficult to study,” Goldman says. “But, thankfully, more and more studies are focused on exactly this problem.”
Additional reporting by Erica Patino.
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