Prognostic role of pre-treatment symptoms for survival of patients irradiated for brain metastases

Background/Aim: For treatment of brain metastases, a patient’s survival prognosis should be considered. Existing survival scores appear complex and require complete tumor staging. For many patients, a faster and simpler tool would be helpful. Patients and Methods: This retrospective study investigated the prognostic value of the number of pre-treatment symptoms plus eight other factors on survival of patients irradiated for brain metastases. Other factors included whole-brain radiotherapy (WBRT) regimen, age, gender, performance score, primary tumor type, number of brain metastases, extracranial metastases, and interval between cancer diagnosis and WBRT. Results: The number of symptoms (p=0.002) and all other factors were significantly associated with survival on univariate analyses. On multivariate analysis, all factors but the number of symptoms (p=0.47) and primary tumor type (p=0.48) were significant. Conclusion: Since the number of symptoms was not an independent predictor of survival, it cannot replace existing scoring tools and may only serve for orientation.