title: Survival after palliative radiotherapy of liver metastases. A search for prognostic factors.
abstract: Seventy-nine patients, aged 21-79 years, were given mega-voltage radiotherapy for symptomatic liver metastases from various primary malignancies. The material was analysed with respect to survival and ability to complete treatment as planned. All patients died. Median survival from start of radiotherapy was 4 months (1 month-2.5 years). Multivariate survival analyses selected only low or high leukocyte count (less than 4 x 10(9)/l or greater than 10 x 10(9)/l) as significant prognostic factors indicating short survival. Other clinical and biochemical parameters including liver function tests were not correlated to survival. Multivariate logistic regression analyses of the ability to complete treatment showed that patients with mammary cancer and thrombocyte count less than 100 x 10(9)/l were less likely to complete the radiotherapy. We conclude that less time-consuming methods of palliation should be tried for these patients as survival time is rather limited in patients with symptomatic liver metastases.
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D006801:Humans; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000532:radiotherapy / Q000556:secondary*; D008875:Middle Aged; D010166:Palliative Care; D011379:Prognosis