Bibliography of Medical Articles About Brain and Other Central Nervous System Metastases

This section offers citations and links to recent medical literature on brain and other CNS metastases, grouped into sections by the following topics:

• Confusing Medical Terminology
• Review Articles
• HER2-Positive Breast Cancer Brain Metastases
• Triple-Negative Breast Cancer Brain Metastases
• Inflammatory Breast Cancer Brain Metastases
• Conventional Surgery, Stereotactic Radiosurgery, Whole Brain Radiation
• Chemotherapy, Targeted and Hormonal Therapies for Brain Metastases
• Leptomeningeal Metastases
• Choroidal (Eye), Spinal and Dural Metastases
• Quality of Life, Cognition and Toxicity
• Length of Survival
• Early Detection
• Alternative and Complementary Treatments

We have indicated which of these citations will link to free full text, but most link only to abstracts, which summarize findings but often do not provide important details. Other ways to get full text include 1) publicly accessible medical libraries; 2) staff at universities or teaching hospitals with subscriptions to the medical/scientific literature; or 3) sending an email request for a reprint to the corresponding author you will often find listed in the abstract. This usually works very well!

*** PLEASE SEND US ARTICLES YOU FIND USEFUL THAT ARE NOT ON OUR LIST! ***

NOTE: Reading medical and scientific articles can be difficult for the layperson. Here are some other important things to keep in mind. Click here for definitions of some confusing terms.

• Some of the articles group CNS metastases from different cancers together, making the findings difficult to interpret for breast cancer.
• Some of the articles are dated. Some progress has been made that makes the mortality and toxicity look worse than they are in the present. Even a current study can be looking at patient outcomes from years earlier.
• Median survival means that half of those being studied live longer than the median and half live less than the median. For example, a median survival of one year means that half will live more than a year, some much longer.
• Many of the studies listed here are retrospective (data gathered from the past). If a study compares how women did with stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) alone vs stereotactic radiosurgery plus whole-brain radiation, it is important to take into account that the women who received only SRS probably had a better prognosis from the outset. This biases the findings. Some treatment questions can only really be resolved with randomized clinical trials which are ongoing.