Intensity-modulated radiation therapy combined with concomitant temozolomide for brain metastases from lung adenocarcinoma

Short-term efficacy, adverse effects and the impact on quality of life (QoL) of a concomitant treatment with intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) and temozolomide (TMZ) in patients with brain metastases (BMs) from lung adenocarcinoma were evaluated. This study sought to confirm the benefit of adding TMZ to IMRT in patients with BMs from lung adenocarcinoma. Nine patients were enrolled and received a dose of 30 Gy in 10 daily fractions to clinical tumor volume (CTV) according to IMRT, then additional dose of 9 Gy in 3 fractions of IMRT was delivered to gross tumor volume (GTV) only with concomitant TMZ (75 mg/m(2)/day) orally during RT for 3 weeks. One patient achieved complete response (CR) (11.1%), 6 patients obtained partial response (PR) (66.7%), and there were no patients in progression. Therefore, objective response (OR) reached 77.8%. The main adverse effects included neutropenia, anemia, vomiting, fatigue and dizziness. Grade ≥3 of hematologic toxicities did not occur. However, the other 9 patients who received only intensity-modulated radiation had much worse results. The CR was 0, PR rate was 44.4%, OR rate was 44.4%. The results indicated that the benefit of adding TMZ to IMRT was confirmed in patients with BMs from lung adenocarcinoma. The treatment was active, a significant OR was observed, and achieved an improvement in QoL demonstrated by QoL grade (p<0.05).