Skip to main content
. 2006 Jun 27;1:19. doi: 10.1186/1748-717X-1-19

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