The First Framework on Brain Metastases Therapy Will Soon Be Released
The brain metastases affect approximately 500,000 people each year in the United States. A team of investigators set up to find a proper framework for treating this aggressive disease and their research was presented in New Orleans during the Congress of Neurological Surgeons. The research is going to be released in a special December edition of the Journal of Neuro-Oncology.
This framework was created during last year, in a joint effort of twenty researchers each having different specializations. The members of the investigation team studied various published materials regarding the brain metastasis and managed to get to a compromise in conducting various therapies against this disease. Medical doctor Steven Kalkanis who is one of the directors of the Hermelin Brain Tumor Center within the Detroit`s Henry Ford Hospital, was the leading member of the research team.
The research is based only on the existing and tested evidence and was supported both by the Congress of Neurological Surgeons and American Association of Neurological Surgeons and by the Joint Tumor Section accompanied by specialists in a variety of fields such as: radiation, oncology and neurosurgery.
Neurosurgeon Steven Kalkanis stated that in the past ten years, a multitude of therapies against the brain metastases was discovered and developed, treatments such as: the surgical cut off the malign tissues, stereotactic radio-operation, partial and/or whole brain radiation treatments, chemo and numerous combinations of these. Due to this increased number of counteracting therapies, neurosurgeons used a variety of combinations in order to aid their patients, but this had as a negative effect the fact that until this specific study, no one really knew which of these represents the most efficient treatment of combination of treatments. Therefore, doctor Kalkanis` team sought to find which is the most effective and efficient treatment of them all.
It seems that in the year 2008, as leading investigator states, 1.4 million people suffered from cancer. Out of them, ranging between 30% and 40% of the individuals will evolve in suffering from brain metastasis. This is primarily triggered by the fact that lung or breast cancers form malign cells which travel in the blood flow to the brain affecting it as well.
Nonetheless, approximately 17,000 people develop new cases of brain malign tumors that will develop and metastasize in the brain.
In the situations in which there was not enough information to generate a framework for treatment or even a pathway to be followed in order to reach a proper therapy guideline, the research presents all the significant and important clinical tests that are still underway as well as the important investigations that need to be undergone in the future in order to gain knowledge about the brain metastases. This will assure future information and support in the battle against this disease.
The research team developed a new brain metastases treatment framework which comprises a variety of treatment possibilities for counteracting the brain metastasis, the current knowledge which is utilized in the pattern of decision-making and this practice`s limits regarding the disease, some demographic agents which can bias the clinical outcomes, the various specific practices of treatment and the influence of the testimonials of the specialized doctors for the clinical evidence released on the practice part of the treatment.
