What is the rate of dementia following whole brain radiotherapy in patients with brain metastases who survive for over a year?
The most frequent argument against whole brain RT is debilitating toxicity. However, I am having a hard time finding the most evidence based data on how high this rate is. I'm not sure the PCI literature really answers this question since brain metastases in and of themselves cause neurocognitive decline (something that the PCI patients do not have at the time of RT).
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Mednet MemberInvited Expert
Radiation Oncology · Mayo Clinic
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To answer this question we need to have a common understanding of "dementia." I think that those of us who follow patients long-term after WBRT all agree that there are cognitive changes that develop. From the placebo arm of RTOG 0614 we know that at 6 months 65% of patients experienced cognitive dy...
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