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Brain metastases constitute one of the most common distant metastases of cancer and are increasingly being detected with better diagnostic tools. The standard of care for solitary brain metastases with the primary disease under control is surgery followed by radiotherapy. Radiotherapy is also the primary modality for the treatment of multiple brain metastases, and improves both the quality of life and survival of patient. Unfortunately, more than half of these treated patients eventually progress leading to a therapeutic dilemma. Another course of radiotherapy is a viable but underutilized option. Reirradiation resolves distressing symptoms and has shown to improve survival with minimal late neurotoxicity. Reirradiation has conventionally been done with whole brain radiotherapy, but now studies with stereotactic radiosurgery have also shown promising results. In this review, we focus on reirradiation as a treatment modality in such patients. We performed a literature search in MEDLINE (www.pubmed.org) with key words brain metastases, reirradiation, whole brain radiotherapy, stereotactic radiosurgery, interstial brachytherapy, and brain. The search was limited to the English literature and human subjects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: To evaluate the local control of hepatic metastasis with radiofrequency ablation treatment. Materials and Methods: We did a retrospective analysis in 40 patients treated with radiofrequency ablation for hepatic metastasis. The tumors ablated included up to two metastatic liver lesions, with primaries in breast, gastrointestinal tract, cervix, etc. Radiofrequency ablation was performed under general anesthesia in all cases, using ultrasound guidance. Radionics Cool-Tip RF System was used to deliver the treatment. Results: The median age of patients treated was 49 years. There were 13 female and 27 male patients. The median tumor size ablated was 1.5 cm (0.75-4.0 cm). A total of 52 radiofrequency ablation cycles were delivered. Successful ablation was achieved in all patients with hepatic metastasis less than 3 cm in size. Pain was the most common complication seen (75%). One patients developed skin burns. At 2-year follow-up 7.5% of patients had locally recurrent disease. Conclusions: Radiofrequency ablation is a minimally invasive treatment modality. It can be useful in a select group of patients with solitary liver metastasis of less than 3 cm size. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sweat gland carcinoma is a rare skin tumor. The tumor has propensity to spread to lymph nodes and distant metastases has been reported. Their exact incidence in the Indian setting is not known. Aspects related to treatment are also not clearly defined. Though surgery forms the initial treatment approach, adjuvant treatment has not been properly explored. We report here a case of sweat gland carcinoma with bilateral lung metastases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]