The Non-Inferiority of Radiosurgery Alone as Initial Therapy for Patients with more than Five Brain Metastases

Masaaki Yamamoto, MD, from Katsuta Hospital Mito Gamma House, Japan, discusses using just radiosurgery as an initial treatment for patients with five or more brain metastases. He opens with the numbers of patients treated annually worldwide with GammaKnife for brain metastases, which is around one million. Almost a quarter of those are in Japan with a comparatively high number of all cases treated being brain metastases. Dr. Yamamoto then gives an overview of the 3400 patients he’s treated personally in his career dating back to 1975. He humorously outlines the skepticism he received in the past for putting forward such an “unconventional” treatment methodology. He uses his case studies to compare other treatment approaches, such as whole brain radiation therapy (WBRT) to radiosurgery, concluding that radiosurgery alone can be safe and effective.