Validation of a survival score for patients treated with whole-brain radiotherapy for brain metastases

• Published in: Strahlentherapie und Onkologie 2013-05, Vol.189 (5), p.364-366
• Main Authors: Dziggel, L., Segedin, B., Podvrsnik, N.H., Oblak, I., Schild, S.E., Rades, D.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Age Distribution; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Brain Neoplasms - mortality; Brain Neoplasms - radiotherapy; Brain Neoplasms - secondary; Female; Germany - epidemiology; Humans; Incidence; Male; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Middle Aged; Oncology; Original Article; Radiotherapy; Radiotherapy, Conformal - mortality; Reproducibility of Results; Risk Assessment - methods; Sensitivity and Specificity; Survival Analysis; Survival Rate; Treatment Outcome
• ISSN: 0179-7158; 1439-099X
• DOI: 10.1007/s00066-013-0308-3

Background This study was performed to validate a scoring system published in 2008 to predict the survival of patients receiving whole-brain radiotherapy (WBRT) alone for brain metastases. Methods The scoring system included four independent prognostic factors: age, performance status, extracranial metastases, and interval between first diagnosis of cancer and WBRT. The score for each prognostic factor was determined by dividing the 6-month survival rate (in %) by 10. The total score represented the sum of the scores for each prognostic factor. Total scores ranged from 9–18 points, and patients were divided into four groups. In the present study, 350 new patients were evaluated in order to validate the previously developed score. Results In the present validation study, the 6-month survival rates were 8 % for patients with a score of 9–10 points (group A), 24 % for those with a score of 11–13 points (group B), 51 % for those with a score of 14–16 points (group C), and 82 % for those with scores of 17–18 points (group D), respectively (p