RESUMO
AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: Because of its rarity, limited data concerning brain metastasis (BM) from bladder cancer (BCa) are available, so this phenomenon remains unclear. We aimed to contribute to understanding this unique patient population's clinical behavior and outcomes. METHODS/MATERIALS: This retrospective cohort study included 27 BCa patients with BM treated at our Cancer Institute between April 2009 and December 2022. The time from initial diagnosis to BM and overall survival from BM diagnosis were calculated (Kaplan-Meier method). Cox regression was used to test key clinicopathologic associations. RESULTS: A total of 27 patients were included in the study (male/female = 23/4). The median patient age at BM diagnosis was 62.0 (47-79) years. The median interval from initial diagnosis to BM was 11.0 ± 2.59 (95 % CI, 5.91-16.08) months. Twenty (74.0 %) patients were diagnosed with BM by postsymptomatic imaging. The most common symptoms were headache-dizziness (n = 9, 33.3 %), seizure (n = 3, 11.1 %), hemiparesis (n = 2, 7.4 %), and vision defects (n = 2, 7.4 %). The most common sites of extracranial metastasis were the lung (n = 10, 52.6 %), bone (n = 7, 36.8 %), and lymph nodes (n = 6, 31.5 %). More than half of the patients (55.5 %) had multiple BMs. Eight (29.6 %) patients underwent surgery for BM. All of the patients received radiotherapy (RT) for BM (whole-brain radiotherapy (WBRT)/stereotactic radiotherapy (SRT) = 24/3), and eight patients received RT for the second time. Six patients were treated with systemic chemotherapy (CT) after BM. The median survival from BM was 3.0 ± 1.2 (95 % Cl, 0.4-5.5) months in the entire cohort. A low number of BMs (HR 0.270, 95 % CI 0.083-0.885; p = 0.031), surgery for BM (HR 0.174, 95 % CI 0.043-0.712; p = 0.015), CT after BM (HR 0.207, 95 % CI 0.057-0.755; p = 0.017), and better ECOG performance score (HR 0.248, 95 % CI 0.074-0.836; p = 0.025) were associated with better OS. CONCLUSIONS: Factors associated with improved survival in BCa patients with BM include a few brain lesions, intracranial resection, CT after BM, and better ECOG performance scores. Larger-scale prospective studies are needed to define the optimal management strategy further.