Seizures prior to whole-brain irradiation for metastatic disease: Prevalence, risk factors and association with survival

Dirk Rades, Jaspar Witteler, Liesa Dziggel, Troels W. Kjaer, Soeren Tvilsted, Steven E. Schild

Abstract

Background/Aim: Seizures are a serious condition for patients with brain metastases. Prevalence, risk factors and a potential association of seizures with survival prior to whole-brain irradiation (WBI) for cerebral metastases were retrospectively investigated. Patients and Methods: In 1,934 patients, the prevalence of pre-treatment seizures (pre-WBI) was determined. Seven pre-treatment characteristics were evaluated for associations with seizures. Ten characteristics including pre-treatment symptoms (none vs. seizures only vs. seizures+others vs. others only) and seizures (yes vs. no) were analyzed for survival. Results: In 251 patients (13.0%), pretreatment seizures were documented. The occurrence of seizures was significantly associated with 1-3 brain metastases and lack of extra-cerebral spread. On multivariate analysis, age, gender, performance score, number of metastases and extra-cerebral spread were significantly associated with survival; pre-treatment symptoms and seizures showed associations on univariate but not on multivariate analyses. Conclusion: Few brain metastases and lack of extra-cerebral spread were independent risk factors for pre-treatment seizures. Seizures appeared positively associated with survival.

Original languageEnglish
JournalAnticancer Research
Volume40
Issue number6
Pages (from-to)3429-3434
Number of pages6
ISSN0250-7005
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 06.2020

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