Differential impact of whole-brain radiotherapy added to radiosurgery for brain metastases.
OBJECTIVE
The authors investigated whether the addition of whole-brain radiotherapy (WBRT) to stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) provided any therapeutic benefit according to recursive partitioning analysis (RPA) class.


METHODS
Two hundred forty-five patients with 1 to 10 metastases who underwent SRS between January 2002 and December 2007 were included in the study. Of those, 168 patients were treated with SRS alone and 77 patients received SRS followed by WBRT. Actuarial curves were estimated using the Kaplan-Meier method regarding overall survival (OS), distant brain control (DC), and local brain control (LC) stratified by RPA class. Analyses for known prognostic variables were performed using the Cox proportional hazards model.


RESULTS
Univariate and multivariate analysis revealed that control of the primary tumor, small number of brain metastases, Karnofsky performance scale (KPS) > 70, and initial treatment modalities were significant predictors for survival. For RPA class 1, SRS plus WBRT was associated with a longer survival time compared with SRS alone (854 days vs. 426 days, p = 0.042). The SRS plus WBRT group also showed better LC rate than did the SRS-alone group (p = 0.021), although they did not show a better DC rate (p = 0.079). By contrast, for RPA class 2 or 3, no significant difference in OS, LC, or DC was found between the two groups.


CONCLUSIONS
These results suggest that RPA classification should determine whether or not WBRT is added to SRS. WBRT may be recommended to be added to SRS for patients in whom long-term survival is expected on the basis of RPA classification.
Kong
Doo-Sik
DS
Department of Neurosurgery, Samsung Medical Center, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
Lee
Jung-Il
JI
Im
Yong-Seok
YS
Nam
Do-Hyun
DH
Park
Kwan
K
Kim
Jong-Hyun
JH
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001932:Brain Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality / Q000532:radiotherapy* / Q000556:secondary / Q000601:surgery*; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy / Q000379:methods; D016371:Cranial Irradiation / Q000379:methods* / Q000401:mortality; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D017567:Karnofsky Performance Status; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D016634:Radiosurgery / Q000379:methods* / Q000401:mortality; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D016879:Salvage Therapy / Q000379:methods