Prognostic factors for lung cancer patients with brain metastases treated with whole brain radiotherapy

Abstract

7570 Background: The purpose of this retrospective study was to clarify the role of whole brain radiotherapy (WBRT) in lung cancer patients with brain metastases (BM). Methods: Between February 1998 and October 2005, 103 consecutive lung cancer patients received WBRT for BM. The patients included 77 men and 26 women, ranging in age from 34 to 84 years with a median age of 65 years. Thirty-six of the patients had SCLC and 67 had NSCLC. Fifty-two patients had an ECOG performance status (PS) score of 0 to 2, and 51 had a PS score of 3 or 4. Seventy-nine patients (77%) had symptomatic BM, and 72 had multiple BM (70%). The mean dose of brain radiation was 38±8.3 Gy. Following radiation treatment, the median survival time (MST) for all patients was 4.0 months, and the 1-year survival rate was 14%. Multivariate analysis was performed using Cox proportional hazards model to evaluate the following: sex, age (<60 years vs. ≥60 years), histology (SCLC vs. NSCLC), PS score (0–2 vs. 3–4), number of BM (single vs. mult...