Trial of Parotid Sparing Whole Brain Radiation

Inclusion Criteria

• •Patients to be treated with WBRT using 3-dimensional conformal RT in 10-15 fractions to a total dose of 30-35 Gy for any diagnosis other than elective treatment of potentially subclinical intracranial disease.
• •No prior radiation that would have exposed the parotids to a significant level of radiation (estimated \>10 Gy mean parotid dose). Patients receiving prior stereotactic radiosurgery for brain metastasis are eligible for inclusion in this trial as this form of radiation is highly conformal and exposes the parotids to minimal (estimated \<1 Gy) radiation.
• •* Patients enrolling on the observational arm may have started their current course of whole brain radiation therapy within 5 days prior to completing the baseline screening questionnaire and consenting to study.
• •Greater than or equal to 18 years of age (no upper age limit).
• •Raw xerostomia score \< 40 / 80 on the initial screening xerostomia questionnaire. This is calculated by adding up the values from questions 1-8.
• •Initial xerostomia questionnaire and informed consent obtained within the required time frame (≤ 30 days before RT start for interventional arm; ≤ 5 days after RT start for observational arm).