Key clinical point: Treatment with stereotactic radiosurgery was superior to non-stereotactic radiotherapy for overall survival in patients with renal cell carcinoma metastatic to the brain.

Major finding: Higher overall survival was observed in the stereotactic radiosurgery cohort both before and following propensity matching. On subset analysis, differences persisted when stratifying for nephrectomy (p<0.001 for all). Treatment at an academic center independently predicted a higher rate of overall survival.

Study details: Data for 2005-2014 in the National Cancer Data Base for metastatic RCC and delivery of intracranial radiotherapy found 2,312 patients, 813 (35%) of whom received SRS and 1,499 of whom received non-SRS radiotherapy. Use of SRS increased from 27% in 2005 to 44% in 2014, and was less often given to low income and uninsured/Medicaid patients (p<0.05).

Disclosures: The researchers had no relevant financial disclosures.

Source: Haque W et al. Clinical Genitourinary Cancer 3 April 2018 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clgc.2018.03.015