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

Stereotactic radiotherapy represents a method to effectively treat brain me tastases with high precision and with high doses. Few acute toxicities are associated with stereotactic radiotherapy however delayed reactions may occ ur and after six months, 20% of patients can develop radionecrosis. To avoi d this adverse Effect, in patients with metastases localized in critical br ain areas, a supplementation of Omega three fatty acids and bioflavonoids h as been used. At the end of 1997, we initiated a series of retrospective st udies to test the efficacy of stereotactic radiotherapy on 405 patients, an d the prognostic importance on survival of various variables among which th is type of supplementation. From the comparison of various survival am,Es w ith the Cox multivariate analysis, it emerged that the patients using this supplementation had a decreased risk ratio and an improvement in survival t ime. A decreased number of radionecrosis was noted We suggest their use as radioprotectors.