Adequate assessment of any survival benefit of this therapy requires appropriate patient selection, Dr. Lassman maintained. Therefore, ongoing analysis of the trial’s results according to patients’ graded prognostic assessment (GPA) scores are eagerly awaited.
“Whole-brain radiotherapy remains a useful tool in the appropriate context that should not be discarded, but it is a crude tool with significant toxicities that is now over 60 years old. Refinements and new approaches are needed and in development,” he concluded.
Dr. Buckner disclosed that he has a consulting or advisory role with Merck Serono and is provided with travel, accommodations, and expenses by Genentech/Roche. The trial was funded by the National Institutes of Health.