Potential Impact of the Interval Between Imaging and Whole-brain Radiotherapy in Patients With Relatively Favorable Survival Prognoses

The interval between diagnostic imaging and whole-brain radiotherapy (WBRT) had no significant impact on survival in our previous study of WBRT for brain metastases. Since median survival time was only 2 months, a potentially negative impact by delaying treatment could have been missed. Therefore, w...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Anticancer research 2019-03, Vol.39 (3), p.1343-1346
Main Authors: Hansen, Heinke C, Janssen, Stefan, Thieme, Cathrin, Perlov, Aleksej, Schild, Steven E, Rades, Dirk
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Aged
Brain
Brain cancer
Brain Neoplasms - diagnostic imaging
Brain Neoplasms - radiotherapy
Brain Neoplasms - secondary
Breast Neoplasms - pathology
Colorectal Neoplasms - pathology
Cranial Irradiation
Diagnostic systems
Female
Histology
Humans
Irradiation
Kaplan-Meier Estimate
Lung Neoplasms - pathology
Male
Medical imaging
Melanoma - pathology
Metastases
Metastasis
Multivariate analysis
Neoplasms, Unknown Primary - pathology
Neuroimaging
Oncology
Patients
Prognosis
Radiation therapy
Survival
Tomography, X-Ray Computed
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Summary:The interval between diagnostic imaging and whole-brain radiotherapy (WBRT) had no significant impact on survival in our previous study of WBRT for brain metastases. Since median survival time was only 2 months, a potentially negative impact by delaying treatment could have been missed. Therefore, we performed an additional analysis of patients surviving at least 4 months following irradiation. The interval between diagnosis of brain metastases and WBRT and ten other factors were retrospectively analyzed for survival in 191 patients surviving 4 months or longer following WBRT. On univariate analyses, Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) performance score of 0-1, 1-3 brain metastases and absence of extra-cerebral metastases were significantly associated with longer survival, whereas the interval from diagnostic imaging to WBRT was not. On multivariate analysis, ECOG performance score remained significant, and extra-cerebral metastases showed a trend towards a longer survival. The interval between diagnostic imaging and WBRT didn't have a significant impact on patients surviving 4 months or longer. Depending on the need for symptom relief, WBRT may be postponed for very important reasons such as obtaining a multidisciplinary tumor board decision or definitive histology.
ISSN:0250-7005
1791-7530
DOI:10.21873/anticanres.13247