How long can you live after whole brain radiotherapy?

Whole brain radiotherapy is radiotherapy for the brain. Radiotherapy is the use of some therapeutic rays for treatment. It has certain benefits for human diseases and may even restore health. However, there are certain risks. Some people will lose their lives due to radiotherapy. Patients who undergo radiotherapy are generally those with cancer. So, how long can you live after whole brain radiotherapy?

Tumor radiation therapy is a local treatment method that uses radiation to treat tumors. Radiation includes α, β, and γ rays produced by radioactive isotopes and x-rays, electron beams, proton beams, and other particle beams produced by various x-ray therapy machines or accelerators. About 70% of cancer patients need radiotherapy during the treatment of cancer, and about 40% of cancers can be cured by radiotherapy. The role and status of radiotherapy in tumor treatment are becoming increasingly prominent, and it has become one of the main means of treating malignant tumors.

Although radiotherapy has only a few decades of history, it has developed rapidly. With the help of the development of CT imaging technology and computer technology, current radiotherapy technology has developed from two-dimensional radiotherapy to three-dimensional radiotherapy and four-dimensional radiotherapy technology. Radiotherapy dose distribution has also developed from point dose to volume dose distribution and dose intensity modulation in volume dose distribution. The current mainstream radiotherapy technologies include stereotactic radiotherapy (SRT) and stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS). Stereotactic radiotherapy (SRT) includes three-dimensional conformal radiotherapy (3DCRT) and three-dimensional intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT); stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) includes X-knife, Gamma Knife (Y-knife) and Cyber ​​Knife. Devices such as X-knife, Gamma Knife and Cyber ​​Knife all belong to the category of stereotactic radiotherapy, which is characterized by three-dimensional, small field, clustered, fractionated, and high-dose irradiation. It requires higher positioning accuracy and faster dose attenuation outside the target area.

The prognosis of this situation is generally not very good, and the average patient's survival period is about half a year. The exact time varies from person to person. In short, you still need to actively cooperate with the treatment and maintain a good attitude.