Dr. Kondziolka Discusses Updates in the Treatment of Brain Metastases

Douglas Kondziolka, MD, MSc, director, Gamma Knife Program, vice chair, Clinical Research, Departments of Neurosurgery and Radiation Oncology, Perlmutter Cancer Center at NYU Langone, discusses updates concerning the treatment of brain metastases.

Kondziolka says brain metastases are the most common tumors that come from cancer. These metastases most commonly come from breast cancer, lung cancer and melanoma. These metastases are more common than gliomas.

For the last 50 years, treatment standards have been either surgical resection or whole brain radiation therapy, Kondziolka says. In the last 20 years, researchers have been working to determine which patients would benefit from a given approach.

A new method, stereotactic radiosurgery, uses focused radiation to inactivate tumors that are present. This is a low-risk, outpatient procedure, Kondziolka says, that has an 80-90% success rate of stopping the tumor from growing.

This approach has transformed the care of patients. Most importantly, this approach allows for patients to continue their cancer treatment uninterrupted.