February 20-22 #radonc Journal Club: Hippocampal Sparing Radiation for Brain Metastasis

The February 2015 #RadOnc journal club will be discussing the article:

Preservation of memory with conformal avoidance of the hippocampal neural stem-cell compartment during whole-brain radiotherapy for brain metastases (RTOG 0933): a phase II multi-institutional trial.

This study is a phase II clinical trial by RTOG, now part of NRG Oncology, evaluating whole brain intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT). The purpose of sparing the hippocampus is to minimize any cognitive side effects of radiation in patients with brain metastases.

As usual, we’ll start asynchronous discussion Friday February 20^th – Sunday the 22^nd , with the live hour 8-9 PM Central Standard Time.

We will be joined by lead author Dr. Vinai Gondi of the Cadence Brain Tumor Center in Warrenville, IL. You can follow him on Twitter for the discussion.

Here are the topics we’ll be covering:

T1a: What is the role of radiation therapy in the treatment of brain metastasis?

T1b: What are the risks and benefits of whole brain radiation therapy for brain metastasis?

T2: What were the purpose and design of RTOG 0933 clinical trial?

T3: What were the results of this clinical trial?

T4a: What are the strengths and limitations of this study?

T4b: What are future directions for continued research?

Thanks to the generosity of ASCO and the Journal of Clinical Oncology, this article will be free and open access from now through the entire chat. Feel free to download the article here:

http://jco.ascopubs.org/content/32/34/3810.full

This should be a lively discussion; we look forward to insights globally from doctors, patients and anyone else interested in this important topic. Please join us!