Therapy of the brain metastases

The prognosis of brain metastases is very poor. Surgery and radiotherapy provides the first line treatment, while systemic therapy has limited value. Nevertheless, our knowledge is increasing: normal cells contribute signifi cantly to the homing and growth of tumor cells; the molecular profi le of the primary tumor and its metastases could be different, which infl uences the therapeutic strategies; the type of blood supply can change during the tumor growth. It would be very important to optimize the cooperation of the different therapeutic modalities, and to fi nd markers which could predict the risk of metastatization.