RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Patterns of Treatment and Outcome in Patients With 20 or More Brain Metastases
JF In Vivo
JO In Vivo
FD International Institute of Anticancer Research
SP 173
OP 176
DO 10.21873/invivo.11455
VO 33
IS 1
A1 NIEDER, CARSTEN
A1 YOBUTA, ROSALBA
A1 MANNSÅKER, BÅRD
YR 2019
UL http://iv.iiarjournals.org/content/33/1/173.abstract
AB Background/Aim: The aim of this study was to analyze the patterns of treatment and outcomes in patients with a large number of brain metastases, arbitrarily defined as 20 or more lesions. These patients are typically excluded from studies of focal brain treatment, e.g., surgery or radiosurgery, and might have a limited prognosis. Patients and Methods: This was a retrospective single-institution analysis. Overall, 11 patients were identified from a prospectively maintained database. Results: Ten patients had received active treatment (9 whole-brain radiotherapy, 7 systemic therapy). Median survival was 5.0 months without long-term survival beyond 13 months. Patients with better performance status had numerically longer survival, however we did not identify baseline parameters with a significant impact on survival. Conclusion: While long-term survival was not observed in this small study, most patients survived long enough to experience symptomatic improvement from whole-brain radiotherapy. Therefore, we recommend multidisciplinary assessment of the patients' prognosis and systemic treatment options, and initiation of whole-brain radiotherapy if survival is not limited to 1-2 months.