Hair-sparing Whole Brain Radiotherapy

Up to 10% of patients with cancer will develop symptomatic brain metastases. Given this limited survival it is important to consider quality of life (QOL) when treating these patients. Whole brain radiotherapy (WBRT) can increase survival to 6 month. However, WBRT itself has been shown to reduce QOL by increasing drowsiness, leg weakness and hair loss in patients with brain metastases. Both fatigue and hair loss were reported to have the largest decline in QOL scores when WBRT is used in the prophylactic setting in small cell lung cancer. Recent technological improvements in patient positioning and treatment planning will allow us to treat the whole brain with reduced margins, allowing better sparing of the scalp. In view of the large impact of hair loss on quality of life, the investigators hypothesize to see an improved quality of life with scalp sparing techniques. Study hypothesis: Volumetric arc therapy results in a reduced hair loss and a subsequent clinically important improvement in QOL.