An interventional study of Cognitive Assessment and Stereotactic Radiosurgery in Metastatic Malignant Neoplasm in the Brain and Metastatic Malignant Solid Neoplasm, sponsored by Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Thomas Jefferson University. Recruiting at 2 sites in United States. Open to participants aged 18 Years and older. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2026-05-22.
Sponsored by Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Thomas Jefferson University · Not applicable, Interventional, and Treatment
This phase II trial studies the neurological function in patients with multiple brain metastases undergoing stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) or stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT). Stereotactic body radiation therapy uses special equipment to position a patient and deliver radiation to tumors with high precision. This method can kill tumor cells with fewer doses over a shorter period and cause less damage to normal tissue. Assessment of neurocognitive function may help show that SRS preserves neurological function in patients with multiple brain metastases better than SBRT.
PRIMARY OBJECTIVES:
I. Assessment of neurocognitive function at months 4.
SECONDARY OBJECTIVES:
I. Assessment of neurocognitive function at months 4 and 12 as measured by neurocognitive decline on a battery of tests.
II. Assessment of symptom burden, as measured by the M.D. Anderson Symptom Inventory- Brain Tumor Module (MDASI-BT).
III. Assessment of quality adjusted survival and health outcomes using the European Quality of Life Five Dimension Five Level scale questionnaire (EQ-5D-5L).
IV. Assessment of local control, in brain control. V. Assessment of progression free survival (PFS), and overall survival (OS). VI. Assessment of side effects and toxicities.
OUTLINE:
Patients undergo SRS on day 1 or SBRT for 3 fractions over days 1-7 and undergo neurocognitive testing at baseline, 4, and 12 months after undergoing SRS or SBRT.
After completion of study, patients are followed up at 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, and 12 months.
2,440 studies on the registry are indexed under Brain Neoplasms; 540 are open to participants now.
This study's planned enrollment of 90 is above the median of 40 across 1,831 interventional studies indexed under Brain Neoplasms.
Browse Brain Neoplasms studies →Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Thomas Jefferson University is the lead sponsor of 41 studies on the registry; 3 are open to participants now.
Of its 17 completed or terminated interventional studies of FDA-regulated products, 14 (82%) have results posted.
Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.
Go through the criteria one by one — yes, no or not sure — and take the list to your doctor or the study team. Kept in this browser only.
Exclusion Criteria:
Underlined terms in the criteria open these too. Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
The diagnosis was confirmed by looking at a sample under a microscope: tissue from a biopsy or surgery (histology), or cells from a fluid or needle sample (cytology).
Your pathology report is the document that shows this.
Malignancy means cancer. Criteria about another or earlier malignancy ask whether you have had a different cancer, usually within a set number of years.
Some are commonly allowed, such as treated skin cancers other than melanoma and early cancers removed completely — check the exceptions this study lists.
A 0–100 scale of how well someone can carry out everyday activities. 100 is no complaints and no signs of illness; 70 is able to look after yourself but not to work or keep up normal activity; 50 is needing considerable help and frequent medical care.
Studies often ask for 60 or 70 and above. Your doctor gives the score.
Cancer deposits in the brain from a cancer that started elsewhere in the body (CNS metastases include the spinal cord).
Studies differ: some leave out any brain metastases, some accept ones treated and stable for some weeks. Check what this study allows.
How quickly the kidneys clear creatinine, a waste product, from the blood. A study may estimate it from a blood test with age, weight and sex (often by the Cockcroft–Gault formula), or measure it using blood and urine collected over a set time. Given in mL/min; higher is better.
Able to become pregnant: from the first period until menopause, unless permanently unable to through surgery (removal of the womb, or of both ovaries or both fallopian tubes).
Criteria for people of childbearing potential usually ask for a negative pregnancy test and for contraception during the study and for a time after it.
Ways of preventing pregnancy. “Highly effective” methods fail less than 1% of the time a year when used correctly — for example an IUD or an implant.
Criteria usually say which methods count and how long to keep using them after the last dose, sometimes for male participants too. Some studies accept a partner’s vasectomy if it was confirmed successful and that person is the participant’s only sexual partner.
Before you join, the study team explains what taking part involves — its purpose, what happens, the risks and possible benefits — and answers your questions, so you can decide freely. Consent is usually recorded on a form (the informed consent form, ICF) signed by you or, where the law allows, by someone legally authorised to decide for you.
You can keep asking questions during the study, you are told of new information that matters, and you can choose to leave at any time.
Cancer that has spread to the leptomeninges, the thin layers covering the brain and spinal cord, and the fluid between them. It is not the same as brain metastases.
Criteria often treat it separately, and many studies leave it out even where treated brain metastases are allowed.
Histologically or cytologically confirmed
The diagnosis was confirmed by looking at a sample under a microscope: tissue from a biopsy or surgery (histology), or cells from a fluid or needle sample (cytology).
Your pathology report is the document that shows this.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Cancer (malignancy)
Malignancy means cancer. Criteria about another or earlier malignancy ask whether you have had a different cancer, usually within a set number of years.
Some are commonly allowed, such as treated skin cancers other than melanoma and early cancers removed completely — check the exceptions this study lists.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Karnofsky performance status (KPS)
A 0–100 scale of how well someone can carry out everyday activities. 100 is no complaints and no signs of illness; 70 is able to look after yourself but not to work or keep up normal activity; 50 is needing considerable help and frequent medical care.
Studies often ask for 60 or 70 and above. Your doctor gives the score.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Brain metastases
Cancer deposits in the brain from a cancer that started elsewhere in the body (CNS metastases include the spinal cord).
Studies differ: some leave out any brain metastases, some accept ones treated and stable for some weeks. Check what this study allows.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Creatinine clearance (CrCl)
How quickly the kidneys clear creatinine, a waste product, from the blood. A study may estimate it from a blood test with age, weight and sex (often by the Cockcroft–Gault formula), or measure it using blood and urine collected over a set time. Given in mL/min; higher is better.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Childbearing potential
Able to become pregnant: from the first period until menopause, unless permanently unable to through surgery (removal of the womb, or of both ovaries or both fallopian tubes).
Criteria for people of childbearing potential usually ask for a negative pregnancy test and for contraception during the study and for a time after it.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Contraception
Ways of preventing pregnancy. “Highly effective” methods fail less than 1% of the time a year when used correctly — for example an IUD or an implant.
Criteria usually say which methods count and how long to keep using them after the last dose, sometimes for male participants too. Some studies accept a partner’s vasectomy if it was confirmed successful and that person is the participant’s only sexual partner.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Informed consent
Before you join, the study team explains what taking part involves — its purpose, what happens, the risks and possible benefits — and answers your questions, so you can decide freely. Consent is usually recorded on a form (the informed consent form, ICF) signed by you or, where the law allows, by someone legally authorised to decide for you.
You can keep asking questions during the study, you are told of new information that matters, and you can choose to leave at any time.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Leptomeningeal disease
Cancer that has spread to the leptomeninges, the thin layers covering the brain and spinal cord, and the fluid between them. It is not the same as brain metastases.
Criteria often treat it separately, and many studies leave it out even where treated brain metastases are allowed.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Patients undergo SRS on day 1 or SBRT for 3 fractions over days 1-7 and undergo neurocognitive testing at baseline, 4, and 12 months after undergoing SRS or SBRT.
Procedure: Cognitive Assessment · Radiation: Stereotactic Radiosurgery · Radiation: Stereotactic Body Radiation Therapy · Other: Quality-of-Life Assessment
Undergo assessment of neurocognitive function
Undergo SRS
Also known as: Stereotactic External Beam Irradiation, stereotactic external-beam radiation therapy, stereotactic radiation therapy, Stereotactic Radiotherapy, stereotaxic radiation therapy, stereotaxic radiosurgery
Undergo SBRT
Also known as: SBRT, SABR, Stereotactic Ablative Body Radiation Therapy
Ancillary studies
Also known as: Quality of Life Assessment
Neurocognitive function as measured by neurocognitive decline on a battery of tests
The proportion of patients with neurocognitive decline at 4 months post stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) treatment in each group will be estimated using the sample proportion with the corresponding two-sided 95% confidence interval. The determination of neurocognitive decline will be based on a battery of tests: Hopkins Verbal Learning Test-Revised (HVLT-R) for Total Recall, Delayed Recall, and Delayed Recognition, Controlled Oral Word Association (COWA), and the Trail Making Test (TMT) Parts A and B. The operative definition for neurocognitive decline in this study will be decline on at least one of these measures.
Time frame: At 4 months
Change in neurocognitive function as measured by neurocognitive decline on a battery of tests conducted by the primary investigator or a trained member of the clinical team
Each patient will serve as his or her own control, and the relative decline in HVLT-R scores from baseline to pre-specified post-treatment internals will be defined as follows: ΔHVLTi = (HVLTB - HVLTF) ÷ HVLTB, where B = baseline and F = follow-up. A positive change indicates a decline in function. Comparison of HVLT-R DR results between control and different time points will be tested using the one-side Wilcoxon signed rank test with significance level of .05. The repeated measures of each neurocognitive test (HVLT-R, COWA, and TMT) and the health-related quality of life (HR-QOL) scale at 2, 4, 6, and 12 months will be analyzed using a linear mixed effects model. The dichotomous indicator of neurocognitive decline based on this battery of tests at 2, 4, 6, and 12 months will be analyzed using a repeated measures logistic regression model.
Time frame: Baseline to up to 12 months
Change in symptom burden as measured by the MD Anderson Symptom Inventory- Brain Tumor Module (MDASI-BT)
Four subscales (symptom severity, symptom interference, neurologic factor, and cognitive factor score) as well as certain individual items (fatigue, neurologic factor items, and cognitive factor items) of the MDASI-BT will be analyzed. For discrete time point analyses, the change from baseline to each follow-up time point (2, 4, 6, and 12 months from the start of treatment) will be calculated and compared between treatment arms using a t-test or Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney test, depending on the normality of the data.
Time frame: Baseline to up to 12 months
Quality adjusted survival and health outcomes as measured by the European Quality of Life Five Dimension Five Level scale questionnaire (EQ-5D-5L)
The Z-test will be used to test the hypothesis that the health outcomes in the 2 treatment groups is the same at different time points after initiation of treatment with a significance level of 0.05 and a 2-sided test.
Time frame: Up to 12 months
Local control as measured by magnetic resonance imaging
Will be measured by magnetic resonance imaging.
Time frame: Up to 12 months
Progression free survival (PFS)
Each group will be evaluated using the Kaplan-Meier method.
Time frame: Up to 12 months
Overall survival (OS)
Each group will be evaluated using the Kaplan-Meier method.
Time frame: Up to 12 months
Incidence of adverse events graded according to the Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events version 5.0
Descriptive analysis will be performed on the acute toxicity data. All estimates of rates (e.g., discontinuation rate and rates of other toxicities) will be presented with corresponding confidence intervals.
Time frame: Up to 30 days after SRS
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Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Thomas Jefferson University