[Systemic treatment of brain metastases from lung cancer]

Systemic treatment of lung cancer patients with brain metastases is based on clinical (presence of symptomatic intracranial lesions), pathological and molecular characteristics of the disease. The efficacy of standard platinum-based chemotherapy is comparable inside and outside the brain, justifying its use as front-line therapy. The intracranial efficacy of targeted therapies (EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitors, ALK inhibitors) is demonstrated, and is globally superior to the efficacy of standard chemotherapy, justifying their use as front-line therapy in case of EGFR activating mutation or ALK rearrangement (providing the change in the crizotinib label in France). The concomitant use of whole brain radiotherapy and a systemic treatment (chemotherapy or targeted therapy) is not recommended in the absence of a demonstrated better efficacy and/or acceptable safety profile. Several trials are ongoing to assess new whole brain radiotherapy modalities, new targeted therapies alone or in combination, especially exploring immunotherapy.