Stereotactic radiotherapy on brain metastases with recent hemorrhagic signal: STEREO-HBM, a two-step phase 2 trial

Background Brain metastases often occur in cancer evolution. They are not only responsible for death but also for disorders affecting the quality of life and the cognitive functions. Management of brain metastases usually consists in multi-modality treatments, including neurosurgery, whole brain radiotherapy (WBRT), and more recently radiosurgery (SRS) or fractionated stereotactic radiotherapy (FSRT), systemic treatment (chemotherapy or targeted therapy), combined or not with corticosteroids. Almost 20% of brain metastases can present recent (within 15 days) bleeding signs on neuro-imagery. In these conditions, WBRT is the usual treatment. Yet, patients may benefit from a more aggressive strategy with SRT or FSRT. However, these options were suspected to possibly major the risk of brain haemorrhage, although no scientifically proven. Radiation oncologists therefore usually remain reluctant to deliver SRS/FSRT for bleeding brain metastases. It is therefore challenging to establish a standard of care for the treatment of bleeding brain metastases. We propose a phase II trial to simultaneously assess safety and efficacy of FSRT to manage brain metastases with hemorrhagic signal. Methods The STEREO-HBM study is a multicenter two-step non-randomised phase II trial addressing patients with at least one bleeding brain metastasis out of a maximum of 3 brain metastases. Each brain metastasis will be treated with 30 Gy in 3 fractions for 1 week. The main endpoint is based on both safety and efficacy endpoints as proposed by Bryant and Day’s design. Safety endpoint is defined as the rate of bleeding complications 4 months post-FSRT while efficacy endpoint is defined as the 6-month local control rate. Multi-modal MRI will be used to assess intra-tumoral hemorrhagic events before and after treatment. Patients’ quality of life will also be assessed. Discussion Management of bleeding brain metastases is still debated and poorly explored in clinical trials. There is sparse and weak data on the signification of pretreatment intra-tumour haemorrhagic signs or on the risk of brain bleeding complications after FSRT. We expect this first prospective phase 2 trial in this particular setting will allow to clarify the place of FSRT to optimally manage bleeding brain metastases. Trial registration NCT 03696680 , registered October, 4, 2018. Protocol version Version 2.1 dated from 2018/11/09.