Clinical Research Directory

Comparing Whole Brain Radiotherapy Using a Technique That Avoids the Hippocampus to Stereotactic Radiosurgery in Patients With Cancer That Has Spread to the Brain and Come Back in Other Areas of the Brain After Earlier Stereotactic Radiosurgery

This phase III trial compares the effect of adding whole brain radiotherapy with hippocampal avoidance and memantine versus stereotactic radiosurgery alone in treating patients with cancer that has spread to the brain and come back in other areas of the brain after earlier stereotactic radiosurgery. Hippocampus avoidance during whole-brain radiation therapy decreases the amount of radiation that is delivered to the hippocampus, which is a brain structure that is important for memory. The medicine memantine is also often given with whole brain radiation therapy because it may decrease the risk of side effects of radiation on neurocognitive function (including thinking and memory). Stereotactic radiosurgery delivers a high dose of radiation only to the small areas of cancer in the brain and avoids the surrounding normal brain tissue. Adding whole brain radiotherapy with hippocampal avoidance and memantine may be effective in reducing the size of the cancer or keeping the cancer the same size when it has spread to the brain and/or come back in other areas of the brain compared to stereotactic radiosurgery.