Increased survival in brain metastatic patients treated with stereotactic radiotherapy, omega three fatty acids and...

Stereotactic radiotherapy represents a method to effectively treat brain metastases with high precision and with high doses. Few acute toxicities are associated with stereotactic radiotherapy, however delayed reactions may occur and after six months, 20% of patients can develop radionecrosis. To avoid this adverse effect, in patients with metastases localized in critical brain areas, a supplementation of Omega three fatty acids and bioflavonoids has been used. At the end of 1997, we initiated a series of retrospective studies to test the efficacy of stereotactic radiotherapy on 405 patients, and the prognostic importance on survival of various variables among which this type of supplementation. From the comparison of various survival curves with the Cox multivariate analysis, it emerged that the patients using this supplementation had a decreased risk ratio and an improvement in survival time. A decreased number of radionecrosis was noted. We suggest their use as radioprotectors.