Table 2.

Results of chemotherapy for brain metastases (some trials also included patients with previous radiotherapy)

Reference	n (patients)	Regimen	OR rate	Median TTP	Median OS
Bafaloukos et al. 2004 [12]	25 melanoma	Temozolomide alone or plus cisplatin or docetaxel	24%	2.0	4.7
Hwu et al. 2005 [13]	26 melanoma	Temozolomide plus thalidomide	12%	Not given	5.0
Agarwala et al. 2004 [14]	151 melanoma	Temozolomide alone	7%	1.1 (PFS)	3.2
Christodoulou et al. 2001 [15]	28 various	Temozolomide alone	4%	3.0	4.5
Abrey et al. 2001 [16]	41 various	Temozolomide alone	6%	2.0	6.6
Caraglia et al. 2006 [17]	19 various	Temozolomide plus pegylated liposomal doxorubicin	37%	5.5 (PFS)	10.0
Christodoulou et al. 2005 [18]	32 various	Temozolomide plus cisplatin	31%	2.9	5.5
Oberhoff et al. 2001 [19]	24 breast ca	Topotecan	25%	4.1 (response duration)	6.3
Korfel et al. 2002 [20]	30 SCLC	Topotecan	33%	3.1	3.6
Bernardo et al. 2002 [21]	22 NSCLC	Vinorelbine plus gemcitabine and carboplatin	45%	5.7 (response duration)	7.6
Cortes et al. 2003 [10]	26 NSCLC	Paclitaxel/cisplatin plus either vinorelbine or gemcitabine	38%	2.9	4.9*
Franciosi et al. 1999 [22]	116 various	Cisplatin plus etoposide	38%1 30%2 0%3	3.9 3.9 2.5	7.1 7.3 3.9
Jacquillat et al. 1990 [23]	36 melanoma	Fotemustine	25%	Not given	Not given
Boogerd et al. 1992 [24]	22 breast ca	Cyclophosphamide, 5-fluoro-uracil and methotrexate or doxorubicin	55%	Not given	5.7
Kaba et al. 1997 [25]	97 various	Thioguanine, procarbazine, dibromodulcitol, CCNU, fluorouracil and hydroxyurea	28%	2.8	5.7

OR: objective response; OS: overall survival in months; TTP: time to progression in months; PFS: progression-free survival in months; SCLC: small cell lung cancer

¹ Breast cancer

² Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC)

³ Melanoma

* 15/26 patients had received whole-brain radiotherapy with 30 Gy, 5 additional radiosurgery after chemotherapy