🎉 Congratulations to our Polish–Italian–German–American team!
Once again, we’ve shown that cross-border collaboration, scientific dedication, and a shared commitment to improving patient care can lead to meaningful advances in oncology 💪🌍
🧠 Our latest publication, titled:
“Interventional stereotactic radiotherapy (brachytherapy) for unresected brain metastases: A systematic review of outcomes and toxicity”
has just been published in Critical Reviews in Oncology and Hematology.
This work represents the most comprehensive synthesis to date of available evidence on stereotactic brachytherapy (SBT) — a form of interventional radiotherapy — used in the treatment of intact (unresected) brain metastases.
Despite its precision and promising efficacy, SBT remains underutilized in clinical practice. With this study, we aim to highlight its relevance and future potential.
🔍 Key takeaways from our systematic review:
✔️ Excellent local control (LC):
1-year LC rates ranged from 93.3% to 100%, even in challenging clinical scenarios such as large or radio-recurrent brain metastases.
✔️ Survival outcomes:
Median overall survival (OS) reached up to 28.4 months, with RPA class I patients consistently achieving the best prognoses.
✔️ Low toxicity and safety profile:
Across all studies, no grade 3/4 acute toxicities were reported. Postoperative morbidity within 30 days was low (0%–6.6%) and there were no fatal complications.
✔️ Consistent methodology:
All studies utilized Iodine-125 (I-125) seeds. Temporary implantation was most common, while permanent implants allowed for higher total doses (up to 150 Gy) and longer treatment durations.
🧠 Why does this matter?
SBT offers a minimally invasive, highly targeted, and safe approach to managing unresected brain metastases — especially for patients who may not be surgical candidates or who have received prior radiotherapy.
Yet, implementing this method is not trivial. It requires seamless, multidisciplinary coordination between radiation oncologists, neurosurgeons, physicists, and oncology nursing teams.
💡 Let’s rise to this challenge and create more specialized, high-performance centers where interventional radiotherapy becomes a standard option — not an exception — in the treatment of brain metastases. Our patients deserve access to the best that modern oncology can offer.
📖 Read the full open-access article here:
👉 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1040842825001659?via=ihub&fbclid=IwY2xjawLKD-1leHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETBmcG5nM2kwdGZJRnpud3V2AR7W9Ba5dWHFru-bTAS-hMdmXxaRqtFZr4WvVcOHcDKbzNA-U_iflZKsTItelA_aem_LBbUYJNdSh5VuYVG9t3h0Q