PURPOSE: Conventional wisdom has rendered patients with brain metastases ineligible for clinical trials for fear that poor survival could mask the benefit of otherwise promising treatments. Our group previously published the diagnosis-specific Graded Prognostic Assessment (GPA). Updates with larger contemporary cohorts using molecular markers and newly identified prognostic factors have been published. The purposes of this work are to present all the updated indices in a single report to guide treatment choice, stratify research, and define an eligibility quotient to expand eligibility. METHODS: A multi-institutional database of 6,984 patients with newly diagnosed brain metastases underwent multivariable analyses of prognostic factors and treatments associated with survival for each primary site. Significant factors were used to define the updated GPA. GPAs of 4.0 and 0.0 correlate with the best and worst prognoses, respectively. RESULTS: Significant prognostic factors varied by diagnosis and new prognostic factors were identified. Those factors were incorporated into the updated GPA with robust separation ( P < .01) between subgroups. Survival has improved, but varies widely by GPA for patients with non–small-cell lung, breast, melanoma, GI, and renal cancer with brain metastases from 7-47 months, 3-36 months, 5-34 months, 3-17 months, and 4-35 months, respectively. CONCLUSION: Median survival varies widely and our ability to estimate survival for patients with brain metastases has improved. The updated GPA (available free at brainmetgpa.com) provides an accurate tool with which to estimate survival, individualize treatment, and stratify clinical trials. Instead of excluding patients with brain metastases, enrollment should be encouraged and those trials should be stratified by the GPA to ensure those trials make appropriate comparisons. Furthermore, we recommend the expansion of eligibility to allow for the enrollment of patients with previously treated brain metastases who have a 50% or greater probability of an additional year of survival (eligibility quotient > 0.50).

OBJECT: Radiation necrosis (RN), or its imaging equivalent, treatment-related imaging changes (TRIC), is an inflammatory reaction to high-dose radiation in the brain. The authors sought to investigate the hypothesis that immunotherapy increases the risk of developing RN/TRIC after stereotactic Gamma Knife (GK) radiosurgery for brain metastases. METHODS: A total of 180 patients who underwent GK surgery for brain metastases between 2006 and 2012 were studied. The systemic therapy they received was classified as cytotoxic chemotherapy (CT), targeted therapy (TT), or immunotherapy (IT). The timing of systemic therapy in relation to GK treatment was also recorded. Logistic regression was used to calculate the odds of developing RN according to type of systemic therapy received. RESULTS: The median follow-up time was 11.7 months. Of 180 patients, 39 (21.7%) developed RN/TRIC. RN/TRIC rates were 37.5% (12 of 32) in patients who received IT alone, 16.9% (14 of 83) in those who received CT only, and 25.0% (5 of 20) in those who received TT only. Median overall survival was significantly longer in patients who developed RN/TRIC (23.7 vs 9.9 months, respectively). The RN/TRIC rate was increased significantly in patients who received IT alone (OR 2.40 [95% CI 1.06–5.44]; p = 0.03), whereas receipt of any CT was associated with a lower risk of RN/TRIC (OR 0.38 [95% CI 0.18–0.78]; p = 0.01). The timing of development of RN/TRIC was not different between patients who received IT and those who received CT. CONCLUSIONS: Patients who receive IT alone may have an increased rate of RN/TRIC compared with those who receive CT or TT alone after stereotactic radiosurgery, whereas receiving any CT may in fact be protective against RN/TRIC. As the use of immunotherapies increases, the rate of RN/TRIC may be expected to increase compared with rates in the chemotherapy era.

BACKGROUND: Growing evidence suggests that immunotherapy and radiation therapy can be synergistic in the treatment of cancer. This study was performed to determine the effect of the relative timing and type of immune checkpoint therapy on the response of melanoma brain metastases (BrMets) to treatment with stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS).METHODS: Seventy‐five melanoma patients with 566 BrMets were treated with both SRS and immune checkpoint therapy between 2007 and 2015 at a single institution. Immunotherapy and radiosurgery treatment of any single lesion were considered concurrent if SRS was administered within 4 weeks of immunotherapy. The impact of the timing and type of immunotherapy on the lesional response was determined with the Wilcoxon rank‐sum test, which was used to compare the median percent lesion volume change 1.5, 3, and 6 months after SRS treatment, with significance determined by P = .0167 according to the Bonferroni correction for multiple comparisons.RESULTS: Concurrent use of immunotherapy and SRS resulted in a significantly greater median percent reduction in the lesion volume at 1.5 (−63.1% vs −43.2%, P < .0001), 3 (−83.0% vs −52.8%, P < .0001), and 6 months (−94.9% vs −66.2%, P < .0001) in comparison with nonconcurrent therapy. The median percent reduction in the lesion volume was also significantly greater for anti–programmed cell death protein 1 (anti–PD‐1) than anti–cytotoxic T‐lymphocyte‐associated protein 4 (anti–CTLA‐4) at 1.5 (−71.1% vs −48.2%, P < .0001), 3 (−89.3% vs −66.2%, P < .0001), and 6 months (−95.1% vs −75.9%, P = .0004).CONCLUSIONS: The administration of immunotherapy within 4 weeks of SRS results in an improved lesional response of melanoma BrMets in comparison with treatment separated by longer than 4 weeks. Anti–PD‐1 therapy also results in a greater lesional response than anti–CTLA‐4 after SRS. Cancer 2016;122:3051‐3058. © 2016 American Cancer Society.

Stereotactic radiosurgery is known to control 85%-95% of intracranial metastatic lesions during a median survival of 6-8 months. However, with the advent of newer systemic cancer therapies, survival is improving; this change mandates a longitudinal quantitative analysis of the radiographic response of brain metastases to radiosurgery. MR imaging of 516 metastases in 120 patients treated with GK-SRS from June 2006 to December 2009 was retrospectively reviewed. Lesion volume at initial treatment and each follow-up was calculated by using the following formula: length × width × height / 2. Volume changes were correlated with patient demographics, histopathology, and radiation treatment variables. Thirty-two percent of lesions increased in volume following radiosurgery. Clinically, this translated into 54% of patients having ≥1 of their lesions increase in size. This increase begins at 6 weeks and can last beyond 15 months' post-SRS. Male sex (P = .002), mean voxel dose 500 mm(3) (P < .001) are associated with posttreatment increases in tumor size. Median survival following radiosurgery was 9.5 months for patients with all lesions exhibiting stable/decreased volumes, >18.4 months for patients with all lesions exhibiting increased volumes, and 16.4 months for patients with mixed lesional responses. Most metastatic lesions are stable or smaller in size during the first 36 months post-SRS. However, a transient increase in volume is seen in approximately one-third of lesions. Sex, treatment dose, initial lesion size, and histopathology all correlate with variations in lesion volume post-SRS. The longer the patient survives, the more likely an increase in lesion size will be seen on follow-up imaging.

OBJECTIVE: Laser Ablation After Stereotactic Radiosurgery (LAASR) is a multicenter prospective study of laser interstitial thermal (LITT) ablation in patients with radiographic progression after stereotactic radiosurgery for brain metastases.METHODS: Patients with a Karnofsky Performance Scale (KPS) score ≥ 60, an age > 18 years, and surgical eligibility were included in this study. The primary outcome was local progression-free survival (PFS) assessed using the Response Assessment in Neuro-Oncology Brain Metastases (RANO-BM) criteria. Secondary outcomes were overall survival (OS), procedure safety, neurocognitive function, and quality of life.RESULTS: Forty-two patients—19 with biopsy-proven radiation necrosis, 20 with recurrent tumor, and 3 with no diagnosis—were enrolled. The median age was 60 years, 64% of the subjects were female, and the median baseline KPS score was 85. Mean lesion volume was 6.4 cm³ (range 0.4–38.6 cm³). There was no significant difference in length of stay between the recurrent tumor and radiation necrosis patients (median 2.3 vs 1.7 days, respectively). Progression-free survival and OS rates were 74% (20/27) and 72%, respectively, at 26 weeks. Thirty percent of subjects were able to stop or reduce steroid usage by 12 weeks after surgery. Median KPS score, quality of life, and neurocognitive results did not change significantly for either group over the duration of survival. Adverse events were also similar for the two groups, with no significant difference in the overall event rate. There was a 12-week PFS and OS advantage for the radiation necrosis patients compared with the recurrent tumor or tumor progression patients.CONCLUSIONS: In this study, in which enrolled patients had few alternative options for salvage treatment, LITT ablation stabilized the KPS score, preserved quality of life and cognition, had a steroid-sparing effect, and was performed safely in the majority of cases.Clinical trial registration no.: NCT01651078 (clinicaltrials.gov)