Paliatívna medicína a liečba bolesti 1/2012

Brain metastases in solid tumours

The improved results of treatment and the prolongation of survival in advanced cancers are leading to the higher probability of symptomatic brain metastases occurrence. The specialists in palliative care are thus more involved in total management of brain metastases. The standard of treatment is local therapy: mostly resection, whole brain irradiation, and stereotactic surgery. Systemic therapy can be very useful in some types of cancer; a typical example is small cell lung cancer. Corticosteroids, diuretics, analgesics and antiepileptics are most commonly used in supportive care. In addition to the need of further clinical and preclinical research, the challenge is to improve terminal care not only in this group of oncology patients.

Keywords: cancer, brain metastases, therapy.