Prognostic factors in survival of patients with cerebral metastases.

Abstract

e12505 Background: The problem of cerebral metastases is a great one and seems to become more and more important thanks to earlier diagnosis and the possibilities of effective treatment. In this analysis 330 patients with cerebral metastases, treated at the Clinic of Oncology, School of Medicine, Zagreb, Croatia, over 13 years, from 1995 - 2007 are dealt with. The most common primary tumor was bronchus carcinoma in 201/330 patients (60.91%), then breast carcinoma in 48/330 patients (14.54%), melanoma in 16/330 patients (4.85%), gastrointestinal tumors in 17/330 patients (5.15%), hypernephroma in 9/330 patients (2.73%), ovarian carcinoma in 10/330 patients (3.03%), cervical small cell carcinoma in 4/330 patients (1.21%), testicular tumors in 5/330 patients (1.52%) and in 20/330 patients (6.06%) the primary was not found. Methods: The patients were treated by surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy in various combinations. Results: There is a significantly better survival in female patients with cerebral metastases from breast carcinoma in comparison to other primary tumors (p<0.001). The patients with longer symptom-free period up to the diagnosis of the secondaries in the brain had significantly better survival (p<0.001). Better survival was achieved in younger patients (p<0.05). Conclusions: Considering the applied therapy methods, the best survival results were obtained in patients treated by a combination of surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy.