Survival of brain metastatic patients treated with gamma knife radiosurgery alone

Abstract

PurposeTo evaluate the impact of gamma knife radiosurgery (GKRS) alone on the survival of brain metastasis patients. MethodsFifty patients, 17 men and 33 women, with 169 metastatic tumors were retrospectively reviewed. Before therapy, their mean Karnofsky Performance Score was 78. The majority of their primary cancers stemmed from the lung (56%). Thirty-five patients harbored multiple tumors. The mean tumor volume was 3.7ml. The mean margin dose was 16Gy. The mean/median clinical follow-up period was 37/25 weeks. ResultsThe overall image-proven tumor control rate was 76%, and the median tumor progression-free period was 26 weeks after radiosurgery. The survival rate of the patients was 58% and 30% at 6 and 12 months, respectively, and the overall median post-radiosurgery survival time was 38 weeks. Both uni- and multi-variate Cox analyses demonstrated that patients with KPS≧80 or who were in Recursive Partitioning Analysis Class I survived significantly longer (p<0.05). ConclusionsPatients treated with GKRS alone can prolong their median lifespan by a range of 6–10 months if they are in a good pre-GKRS functional state.