Prophylactic cranial irradiation (PCI) versus observation in radically treated stage III non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC): A randomized phase III NVALT11 study.

8502Background: Brain metastases are one of the major sites of tumor failure in patients (pts) with radically treated stage III NSCLC. The value of PCI in these pts remains unsettled. This study is designed to investigate whether PCI reduces the incidence of symptomatic brain metastases (sBM). Methods: Pts were randomized between observation and PCI after concurrent or sequential chemo-RT with or without surgery. PCI dose was left to the physician(36 Gy/18F, 30 Gy/12F, 30 Gy/10F). Pts were registered before randomization, those progressing after chemo-RT were not randomized. Pts were followed for sBM (defined as increased intracranial pressure, headache, nausea, vomiting, cognitive, affective disturbances, seizures, focal neurological symptoms andMRI/CT), side effects, survival, quality of life (QLQ-C30, EuroQol 5D). The primary endpoint is the proportion of patients developing sBM. Randomizing 300 pts the study has 90% (2-sided p = 0.05) power to detect 17% decrease in pts developing sBM at 24 months (mo...