[Radiation oncologic considerations on the treatment of cerebral metastases and personal experiences with 140 cases]

Cerebral metastases appear frequently and necessitate therapeutic measures. The authors report the incidence and particularities as well as the different modes of formation of metastases in the central nervous system. Surgical procedure should be carried out in case of favorable solitary metastases, young patients, and unknown primary tumors. Radiotherapy, which has proved for 30 years to be a valuable treatment method, has to be applied in a modified form in every case. Furthermore, the possibilities of chemotherapy should be studied and applied in a more intensive manner than hitherto. The chance of a one-year survival time is 22 to 44% for those patients presenting with an easily operable tumor. For the total group of radiotherapy patients suffering from various tumor types and generalized metastases, this rate is between 12% and 16%. Despite the short survival times, one should not forget that radiotherapy can produce many successful long-term results in case of cerebral metastases. Therapeutic nihilism is not the right attitude towards this problem.